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Even when I was at school during the 1940/50's I was interested in history, although at that time the teachers seemed more concerned with pumping out dates and lists of kings and queens and battles, rather than the more detailed facts about the lives and the livelihood of real people who were less important, but nevertheless lived during our history. Many, many years later I decided that I would like to investigate the family's antecedents, and during the early 80's I made two important discoveries, the first was that I really did enjoy delving into old records and trying to put together a picture-less jig-saw, and secondly much to my surprise it was perhaps possible to obtain old photographs/pictures of the area where some of our ancestors once lived. At that time my knowledge of post-cards was confined to those items which convention obliged us to send to friends and family whilst we ourselves were away on holiday, in the hope that our good fortune would some how cheer them up when they received our card, more often than not after we had already returned home and had already brought them up to date with our news. On the front of the obligatory PC would be a stunning view of the lake or mountains, or of coastal area which some how always looked much better than the real thing, but at least it was designed to make the recipient envious of our new environment. But suddenly the cards that I was now looking at were black and white images of the past, and they included many of the local villages and suburbs of the city which today's post-card producer would consider to be totally unworthy of his expertise's. Invented during the 1870's, post cards became an important part of Victorian and Edwardian life, as instead of having to write a letter stuffed full with numerous platitudes and unnecessary remarks before you could get to the hub of the matter, the PC gave the writer the freedom of creating just a short note, with little need to fill out a larger space, and as such became the mobile phone; the telex, the Email of the day. Once I had discovered this source, and found that the old pictures of the small communities of the local area had been preserved, I was hooked. Twenty years or more later of collecting these and other pictures has enabled me to build up a reasonable collection sufficient to fill a number of books, which means that in turn I can share my pleasure and enthusiasm with you the reader, and together we can look through the photographic eye of the camera and get a glimpse of what life and the environment was like one hundred years or so ago. Not only have I been able to produce books full of historical pictures, I have also been able to continue with my delving into old records and have so far produced four books which aim to illustrate the past with the written word, occasionally supplemented with pictures it has often been kindly said of my books that once started they are difficult to put down. As for the future, I am already working on a pictorial book to be known as "AROUND SALTFORD", which will include CORSTON and NEWTON ST LOE which I hope to have available by April/May 2003. Other books in the pipe-line will include places such as BRIDGEYATE; WARMLEY; HANHAM; KINGSWOOD; MARKSBURY; CHELWOOD; PENSFORD; HIGH LITTLETON, and many other adjacent villages. |
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