Frank Aldous Girling

Frank Aldous Girling, FSA (1898- 1966). was an East Anglian farmer, photographer and expert amateur archaeologist. He provided photographs for several books about East Anglia, including Nikolaus Pevsner's Suffolk, and his photography led to an important discovery of Bronze Age barrows in Essex. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1942.

In 1949 he married Minnie How. and in 1942 he became a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. His interpretation of Suffolk merchants' marks is mentioned in The Arma Christi in Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture, edited by Andrea Denny Brown and Lisa Cooper. Girling also wrote articles for local archaeological societies on a variety of subjects (see bibliography below).

He photographed the architecture and archaeological artefacts of East Anglia, and his photography led to important archaeological discoveries. In 1957, through his photography, he found a circle in a field of sugar beet in Dedham. This led to the discovery of the existence of Bronze Age barrows, previously thought not to exist in north-east Essex. Bryan Blake excavated the site for Colchester Museum and found Bronze Age collared funerary urns, which were photographed by Girling in 1960.

In his book Suffolk, Nikolaus Pevsner credits Girling for providing his photographic collection of Suffolk for Pevsner's research and for identifying architectural details on various buildings. Girling also provided images for Humphrey Pakington's book, English Villages and Hamlets.

Girling also documented farming through his photography.

Collections and archives When he died, Girling's Essex photographs were donated to the Essex Society for Archaeology and History and to Colchester Museum, while his photos of Suffolk went to Ipswich Library.