Picture plea from society

Modern photographs are needed as part of a project to record the history of Southwell.

The town’s civic society is keen to add to its collection of about 3,000 photographs of people, events and street scenes over the past 100 years.

In a bid to keep the archives up to date the society is particularly keen to receive pictures of recent events, such as Southwell Festival.

The society chairman, Mr Mike Struggles, said: “A part of our millennium project in 2000 we photographed all the buildings on King Street and Queen Street and we decided to extend that and photograph the whole town, but then we wondered if people had recent photos of events that had taken place here.

“We would like pictures of special events that we could keep in our archive for the future.

“The idea is that where as we had to beg and borrow photographs to get bits together, we can work positively now to record the town and events for future generations.”

As well as pictures of events such as Southwell Festival or important services at the minster, Mr Struggles said they would also like pictures of day-to-day events, such as the market, plus photographs of some of the older properties in the town.

“Everyday life is just as important to record as the special events,” Mr Struggles said.

“We would like any photographs that might be of interest and we will still be collecting any old ones.

“One of the problems we have is that we can really only photograph buildings from the public right of way, so we would like to collect photographs of buildings that were taken in the gardens of the old houses so we can record views of them that cannot be see from the road.”

The society’s photographs can be viewed on the internet at www.southwellcivicsociety.com or by making an appointment at the Old Court House, Burgage.

Anyone who would like to contribute can post either the photographs or digital copies on CD to Mrs B. Masters, Granary House, 2, Kirklington Road, Southwell, NG25 0DW.