RAMSBOTTOM HERITAGE SOCIETY
THE meeting on March 21 started with the annual photographic competition results.
The competition has been running for 31 years, and this year 12 entrants entered a total of 282 photographs in four categories – some people entering less than 10 photographs, and one person entered 129.
The judge was Andrew Todd, who presented the awards on the evening.
The evening started with a slide show showing 10 entries from each category that hadn’t won a prize.
The competition winners were not necessarily the best quality photographs, but ones which reflected Ramsbottom in 2017, as all the photographs had to have been taken last year. There are now more than 3,650 photographs on the Ramsbottom Heritage website taken in the last 31 years. The winners in each category were Buildings – Highly Commended – Ian Smith for a photo of the NatWest bank before it closed in October and Joyce Sellers for a picture of the derelict Stockdale and Turnbull building in Edenfield.
The winner was Ian Chapman for a view of Grant Arms from Central Street.
Andrew commented that the picture showed the busyness of Ramsbottom, such as a delivery to the chemist’s, as well as the mundane such as bins waiting to be emptied, and a view of the Grant Arms, now closed.
The Themes category is for three to five photos on a theme and had the lowest number of entries, 13. The Highly Commended awards went to Anne Shortt and Alan Seymour, who both entered photos of Croft End Mills, Stubbins, as it was demolished, and is being redeveloped for new housing.
The winner was Anne Shortt for views of Kay’s Soap Works, including some interior shots, which Andrew hadn’t seen before. As he pointed out, he judged the competition two years ago and chose the interior of the old post office in Edenfield as the overall winner.
One of the Events and Daily Life Highly Commended certificates went to Daryll Spencer for a photograph of the car boot sale on Railway Street with a steam train in the background.
Andrew said it reflected everyday life in Ramsbottom, which people rarely photograph, but which are historically useful for future generations. The other went to Ian Williams for a band playing at Summerseat Fete, which Andrew said was a natural photograph, not posed.
The winner was Ian Chapman for a photograph of the War Weekend, which again Andrew said was a natural looking photograph and held lots of interest.
The Town and Country category certificates went to Alan Seymour, showing that there is still no road access by the Spinnings in Summerseat, and Keith Burroughs for a view of the Old Baptist Church on Bolton Street with Scout Moor in the background, which shows the countryside around Ramsbottom. This theme was also the reason for Andrew choosing the winner of the Town and Country category, and also the overall winner of the Dickensian Trophy, who is Joyce Sellers, for a sweeping view of Ramsbottom, Marshalls’ Quarry and Scout Moor, taken from Holcombe Hill.
Andrew said that if you zoom in, there is an extraordinary amount of detail in the photograph, such as the allotments on Peel Brow and cars on Peel Brow estate, mixed farming with cattle and sheep in the same field above the quarry, and the wind turbines on Scout Moor.
After refreshments, Andrew gave a presentation of how Ramsbottom has changed in the last 30 years by comparing old photographs with ones taken recently. He concentrated on the area around Tesco and Morrisons, as Andrew used to walk his children home from St Paul’s school to his shop on Square Street. Both buildings have since closed, and some of the buildings on the way have been demolished, such as the houses that were on the site of the car park on Prince Street. He also highlighted the difference in the number of cars on the current Tesco car park, which was waste land in the 1980s.
Andrew also showed pictures of wells and other lesser known features around Ramsbottom. The next meeting is on Wednesday, April 18 at 7.30pm at Ramsbottom Civic Hall, when Veronica Walker returns to give an illustrated talk on Dickens’ Fallen Women, the way Dickens deals with the subject in his novels and the part he played in setting up a house with the help of the heiress Angela Coutts to help women.
All are welcome, non-members pay £2 entrance fee, which includes refreshments.