Edward Errey

Dealer in second hand furniture and antiques, Heathfield. Errey established his business in about 1900 at Punnetts Town, but soon moved to a more prominent and spacious building on the north side of Heathfield High Street. In 1910 he added a printing works, bookbindery and stationer's shop. Alan Gillet and Barry K. Russell reproduce three photographs of Errey's Heathfield premises in their engaging books Around Heathfield in old photographs and Around Heathfield in old photographs, a second selection (1990 & 1991, Alan Sutton, Stroud).

Errey was born at Burwash in about 1866 while his wife, Fanney, came from Warbleton. The couple do not appear to have had any children. The 1911 census gives their address as "Charlwell", High Street, Heathfield. A neice, Edith Cott, acted as a nurse and companion for Mrs Errey.

In the late 1920s and early thirties Errey sold a selection of four or more sepia-tinted real photographic cards of Heathfield High Street with captions printed on transparent slips. The cards are marked "Published by E. Errey, Heathfield" in their bottom right corners, again on transparent slips. An example is shown above. In his recent book From Uckfield to East Hoathly in old photographs (2004, Tartarus Press, Leyburn, North Yorkshire), Barry Russell reproduces a supposedly earlier Errey card of the High Street, which he dates to around 1914.

The cards sold by Edward Errey, John Barrow (Heathfield) and Sydney Johnson (Beckley) in around 1930 are of identical design and were evidently manufactured by the same person. Whether this supplier was based in Sussex or another county needs further research. G. A. Cooper of Maidstone sold cards of Rye and some places in Kent that have the same distinctive design features, which raises the question as to whether Cooper, who had a very extensive postcard publishing business, manufactured all the cards in question, including those issued by Errey.

Errey died at Hailsham in late 1940, aged 75.

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