Ryefield House is at the top of Rye Hill - it used to be the home of Miss McFall from 1929 (one year after it was built by a Mr Moneypenny Morgan).
She later had a bungalow built in the grounds where she lived after selling the house in the 1970s I believe.
When she died she left behind a collection of clothes, tin plate toys and other items dating back to the start of the 20th century (she was born in 1901).
These items were sold at auction many going to museums.
She also left behind many glass half plate photographic negatives some dating from before she was born.
The couple that bought her bungalow after her death found these items outside in an old dustbin.
Her next of kin were not interested and when we moved in to Ryefield House in the mid 1980s, our neighbours wondered if we were interested and as we were, they passed them on to us.
Many of the plates were in a sorry state some broken and most covered in mould and some stuck to the card of the containing boxes.
I cleaned them as best I could using very mild detergent and began the process of photographing them.
Mis McFall's family had owned an estate in pre-partitioned Ireland and a good proportion of the plates show images from that era. Family events and country pursuits feature in many plates.
The family moved to Dorset when Miss McFall was still quite young and they lived in the Rectory at Winterborne Zelston.
There are several images of this location in the collection.
Miss McFall moved to Ryefield when she was a young woman and became one of the few locals to own a car, her first being a Rhode tourer which features in a number of the plates.
She also took a few photos of Rye Hill farm a couple of which show a young Tony Shave with his Mother and a magnificent shire horse.
