WE CAN'T, frustratingly, name anyone amongst this selection of fine upstanding citizens, but we do know that they were almost certainly from the Black Country.
The picture, another from the collection of John and Kath Bloore of Kingswinford, looks to date from around a hundred years ago, probably not long after the turn of the century.
Kath believes it must either have come from her Jones or Massey families, who lived in Blackheath and Wall Heath at different times; or possibly from a family friend, Janet Billingham. Janet's father Oliver Billingham was at one time an agent for the Earl of Dudley, so he may well be amongst this group. If the latter is the case, there must surely be some other members of Dudley's great and good amongst them, though it is perhaps too far back now for anyone to recognise a face.
The Hotel Rudyard would almost certainly have been at Lake Rudyard near Leek, and you can well imagine these men, business types no doubt, thoroughly enjoying taking themselves off for a few days of what today we'd call 'networking', amongst the fresh air and scenery of the Staffordshire Moorlands.
