Ambrose Henry Bensley Stickells was born in 1864 in Hythe, Kent, the son of David Stickells, Cranbrook's photographer. At the age of 20 Ambrose Stickells was given a sum of money by his father, along with a horsedrawn van, and was packed off to make a living as a photographer around Kent and Sussex. At Mayfield he met and married his wife Mary Ann Lade in 1890 and they had children as Ambrose took his van to Leigh, where Mary Frances was born in 1891, to Robertsbridge, where Ambrose was born in 1896 and finally to Crowborough where Percy was born in 1898 and where the family settled. Over the years, Ambrose Stickells produced a series of picture postcards of people at home, people at work and places throughout Crowborough and the surrounding area. He was the premier photographer of Crowborough.