A JUBILEE OF SHOPPING

50 GOLDEN YEARS OF SHOPPING IN BROADSTONE

To coincide with the Queen's Golden Jubilee, 4 members of the Poole U3A Photographic Group decided to undertake a project to photograph all the shops in Broadstone, and where possible, to compare the photos with ones from 1952. In fact very few photographs of the Broadstone shops at that time are available but those that have been found make a very interesting comparison.

The project was inspired by an exercise one Monday morning, when a single use camera was taken out by 9 members of the Group with the instruction that each was to take 3 photos in 10 minutes of anything in the village. When processed the film revealed a number of photos of shops taken both outside and inside, hence the idea to photograph all the shops, including take-aways, charity shops, etc. An application to the Awards for All Lottery Fund to fund the project was successful and will pay for all aspects of the project.

An exhibition of some 40 panels of photos recently held in the Broadstone Community and Arts Centre was opened by Cllr. Mrs Annette Brooke MP.

The next stage in the project is to produce a limited edition booklet of all the photos along with a short description of each of the shops activities in 1952 and its function today. Each shop will receive a complimentary copy of the booklet. Copies will also go to Poole and Broadstone Libraries, local schools, the Dorset Archive in Dorchester and of course to Buckingham Palace.

The project team, all very experienced amateur photographers, is led by Brian Woolgar who has lived in Broadstone since 1966, working for Plessey and then GPT until his retirement in 1995. He is supported by Derek Harris who came to Broadstone in 1965, working for Flight Refuelling until his retirement in 1999. The third member of the team is Tom Wilson who lived in Broadstone from 1965 to 1966 and who returned in 1979, working for Hamworthy Combustion until he retired in 1998. The fourth member is Brian Pickering who has lived in Canford Heath since 1972, working for the DHSS until he retired in 1994.

The team is still looking for photos from the fifties. Contact Brian Woolgar on 01202 692502.

Archive Summer 2002 | next

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