HISTORIAN Steve Chapples has charted the career of his great uncle, the artist Joseph Ogden.

Born on Christmas Eve 1862, Joseph was brought up in Higham and developed his artistic gifts in Nelson.

He opened a studio in Hibson Road and, for a time, taught evening classes at the Carr Road Wesleyan Chapel.

His wife, Martha Anne Waddington, came from Nelson and her father had a furnishing business in Leeds Road, on the site of the former Palace Theatre.

Joseph was a student of Burnley Art School at the Mechanics Institute and, added Steve: “It is thought that had he lived longer, he would have become one of the most famous artists in the country, for he had many works hung in the Royal Academy.”

One of his finest oil paintings is of Spenser’s House in Hurstwood, which he painted in 1907 and it shows an old lady called Mrs Pickles, who lived in the hamlet, sitting in the porch.

He bequeathed this work to the Towneley Hall archive but, for a time, it hung in the Royal Academy of which he was an Associate.

He died in 1925 and is buried at St John’s Church, Great Marsden.

His pink marble tomb is adorned with an easel and brushes motif.

In his will he donated two pictures to Nelson Free Library.

Two more went to the Burnley School of Art, and two to Towneley Hall.

The second is a watercolour of the interior of Spenser’s House.

This was hung at the first exhibition, after Lady O’Hagan sold the hall to Burnley Corporation in 1901.

Two dozen of his smaller works were given to Higham Wesleyan Chapel and depict local scenes, which he painted during his many visits to the area to see his younger brother James, who lived in Ecroyd Street, Lomeshaye.

The brothers are both descended from Edward Ogden, the brother of James, who was the registrar in Haworth at the time of the Brontes and schoolmaster at Stanbury.