In the Bucks Free Press edition on January 19, 2024 I published an article questioning whether Edmund J Niemann (1813 -1876) had any connections with Wycombe, as has often been claimed, but without providing any evidence.

Niemann certainly had a very peripatetic lifestyle, which included several appearances in the Bankruptcy Courts, but I found no evidence that he ever lived in or near High Wycombe. Such evidence has now been found, for which we can thank Jackie Kay of the High Wycombe Society.

An unexpected discovery

Jackie was recently trawling through an old volume of County Fire Insurance records when she was, in her words, “surprised and delighted to see an entry, dated September 29, 1845, relating to a policy taken out by the artist Edmund J Niemann.” This gave his address as “Minden Cottage Cores End Wooburn near Beaconsfield Bucks”, a property said to be “in his own tenure”.

The entry then listed the following items to be insured for valuation purposes:

Household furniture bedding linen glass crockery etc £90

Prints and books £40

Frames and glasses to ditto £10

Casts £5

Canvases Colors etc (stock in trade) £10

Paintings and frames £45

Total £200

The building in which these possessions were kept was said to be of “Wood with a perfect brick chimney”, with a note to say that “the cottage stands alone and there is millstream close-by and a good pump”. The insurance premium was set at 14s 9d.

Minden Cottage

The only other reference to Minden Cottage which has been found is in the book “Theirs were but human hearts” by Brian Brenchley Wheals, which is a local history of three Thameside parishes Wooburn, Little Marlow and Hedsor. Brian, who sadly died some 20 years ago, was one of first local historians to volunteer to assist with the cataloguing of images for the SWOP proiect, and font of knowledge about those parishes.

In his book he wrote “In 1844-45 he (ie Niemann) lived at Cores End in a cottage he renamed Minden Cottage and it seems certain that at that time he was very busy sketching and painting. In 1844 his work was accepted by the Royal Academy for the first time and it is clear from the titles of his exhibits that he concentrated on local scenes, for they were an oil painting ‘On the Thames near Great Marlow’ and a sketch ‘The Lime Kiln at |Cores End’. I have no idea where these are now but in 1846 he moved to High Wycombe and continued depicting the local scene for another two years before he moved back to London.”

So from Brian’s book we have the first clue that Niemann did in fact live in High Wycombe from 1846 to 1848, but with no evidence to support that.

Edmund J NiemannEdmund J Niemann (Image: Supplied)

A marginal note

However such evidence was found by Jackie Kay during her study of the Fire Insurance records. Jackie found a marginal note with the entry described above, which was headed “memorandum” and signed by the local insurance agent J. Harman. He was probably the same J Harman who published a number of Niemann’s paintings as engravings. This read “The within mentioned property [ie the list above valued at £200] is removed to his Dwelling House (Brick and Tile) situate on Mount Pleasant, Oxford Road, |High Wycombe, Bucks (standing alone) and this insurance is continued at the future annual payment of premium 5/6 instead of as within stated”.

Clearly a “Brick and Tile” property was a much reduced fire risk than the wooden cottage had been, hence the reduction in premium from 14s 9d to 5s 6d!

Mount Pleasant

A dwelling at a place called Mount Pleasant sounds a very attractive prospect, but was it indeed so?

The name was given to the slope of land immediately opposite Ash Mill on Oxford Road, which today is the end of Westbourne Street. It is clearly marked on the town map of 1875, when there was a substantial detached property there and various associated outbuildings. But by that time the area was hemmed in by a large chair factory immediately to the west and by the railway line to the north.

From an advertisement in the Bucks Free Press we know that an auction took place on March 11, 1859 of the ‘Valuable Freehold Estate situate on Mount Pleasant, Oxford Road, High Wycombe’, which is offered for sale by auction at White Hart Inn by orders of the executors of the late Mr Thomas Jeffreys in 3 lots.” The Estate consisted of a dwelling house and eight cottages, with yard, garden and outhouses. Two of the cottages had been combined to form the Carrington Arms public house, which was “doing an excellent trade” The property was said to be “advantageously situated, facing the Oxford Road, and a pleasant position will always command respectable tenants”.

Niemann’s Legacy

In his work and his lifestyle Niemann maybe said to be something of an enigma. In his obituaries he is variously described as “a meritorious although relatively unknown painter”, and one “.who not very much thought of in his lifetime, is now beginning to be valued”.

Opinions of his artistic talent vary from “His paintings are characterised by great versatility, natural colours and visual realism, often in the romantic artistic style”, to “Niemann’s pictures, some of which are large, Illustrate every phase of nature. They show great versatility but have been described as at once dextrous and depressing”.

Appeal

If you possess, or know the whereabouts, of a Niemann painting or an engraving of one of his paintings, I would love to receive details of the subject matter. The same applies to the works of the artist Alfred Steers, known as ‘Wycombe’s very own portrait painter’, who is thought to have produced portraits of most of the ‘great and the good’ of Wycombe in the 19th century.