TAUNTON can lay claim to one of the earliest photos taken in England.

According to the Taunton Courier of October 2, 1839, Frederick Lake, of Bath Place, took an image of the tower of St Mary Magdalene Church that was a "curiously faithful picture".

That was soon after Louis Daguerre and William Henry Fox Talbot were credited with the invention of photography about 180 years ago.

Unfortunately it seems unlikely that Lake's image has survived, but he is one of nearly 800 snappers featured in a new book, ' Secure the Shadow: Somerset Photographers 1839-1939', by local men Robin Ansell, Allan Collier and Phil Nichols.

The celebration of Somerset’s photographic history through the lives of its photographers includes a listing of the photographers and the dates and locations of their studios, a key resource for estimating the date of photos.

Somerset’s first photographic studio opened in 1841 in the Royal Victoria Park, Bath.

A disk containing nearly 4,500 pages accompanies the book and includes biographies based on census information, newspaper articles, books, archive material and other sources.

The disk also more than 1,500 photographs they took.

Robin Ansell said: "With the large number of photographers whose lives and careers we’ve studied, there was always likely to be quite a range of characters.

"We’ve found one photographer who claimed to have saved Queen Victoria from assassination, another who died in a tragic accident, falling 15 stories down a lift shaft in a Chicago skyscraper.

"There are several whose studios were blown away by gales, many who went bankrupt, with several being imprisoned for debt, and one who was imprisoned for stealing a military cornet, only to become the cornet-playing bandmaster of the 3rd Somerset Rifle Volunteers just three years later.

"We learned of the photographic career of the eminent inventor John Stringfellow, of Chard, who is said to have achieved the first powered flight in 1848."

*The book is available at £12 (plus p&p) from the Somerset & Dorset Family History Society, at its Yeovil offices at Broadway House, Peter Street, Yeovil BA20 1PN (01935-429609) or via its online shop at shop.sdfhs.org/publications/somerset-books