AN appeal has been made for anybody who can help to solve the mystery behind a photograph taken in a West Somerset village more than 60 years ago.

The black and white photograph was found in a house in Timberscombe which was recently bought by new owners and shows four women dressed in exotic Eastern costumes lowering a similarly dressed a man on to what was thought to be a fake bed of nails.

As Timberscombe’s St Petrock’s History Group archivist Tom Sperling put it: “Not an everyday Somerset occurrence.”

Coincidentally, Mr Sperling recently received a letter from a woman named Sue Peach, who was going through family memorabilia and re-found a postcard and pictures from a visit she made to Timberscombe in 1963, when she was 11 years old.

Ms Peach told Mr Sperling her family had gone to see ‘Shalimar Gardens’, which was located on the present corner of the A396 and Orchard Way Street, when approaching the village from Dunster.

There was no road then, which

The site was still an orchard in 1963 and there was no road to it, and Shalimar Gardens was run by a ‘retired captain’ and his wife who had lived in India and were then selling Indian trinkets such as glass bangles which they displayed by hanging them on the trees.

Ms Peach aid that as a child she thought it was ‘enchanting’ and she bought some of the trinkets, which match the bangles worn by the women in the mystery photograph.

She wondered if there was anybody locally who remembered the gardens.

Mr Sperling said: “I had not known about this, and then this photograph was found.

“It is in the same location, there still is a house called Shalimar, later altered, which can be seen in the background.

“I took the photograph around to older people in the village and a couple of people remembered ‘Shalimar Gardens’ had existed, that the captain could well be the fellow in the photograph and that he had served in India and was quite eccentric.

“Unfortunately, nobody remembers his name.

“Other people think one or two of the girls are familiar, but again they are not identified.

“But it was real, and it would be terrific to know if other people might remember it, and, even better, if somebody identified themselves as one of the young women.”

Anybody who has information about the photograph and/or the people in it can let Mr Sperling know by emailing him at [email protected] or calling 01643 841185.

St Petrock’s History Group runs a dedicated website containing hundreds of historical images of Timberscombe and its residents with a wealth of background research.

The group covers Timberscombe, Wootton Courtenay, and surrounding areas and meets in the grade one listed church as a way of encouraging more community use of the building.

Mr Sperling said: “Our thanks go to the many people who have generously donated images and information.

“The information already provides a unique insight into rural life that might otherwise have been lost.”