Acknowledgements

The Gamlingay Photos website has now been in existence since 2011 and since then the number of photo contributions has increased substantially.
In June 2012 I was contacted by Diana Scott of Merton Grange who had found 2 photo albums that she thought may be of interest. When I visited her she had discoverd 17 more consisting of hundreds of photos taken by the Ellis family from 1919 to the mid-1940s.
Furthermore, the vast majority of them had not only the details of the people and events shown but also the date on which they were taken. She kindly donated all of these to Gamlingay History Society and those photos that were relevant to this website have now been published – a huge restoration task.
The other photos which now reside in the History Society archive provide a very valuable source for a future research project.
We cannot thank Diana enough for this tremendous donation.

I would especially like to thank James Brown (author of ‘Villagers: 750 Years Of Life In An English Village‘) for his enormous contribution of photos, background material & his endless encouragement.
While other notable contributions of photos have come from Jim Empson, the Worboys family, Jackie Brend, Doug Titmus, Maureen Arrowsmith and of course the History Society’s own photo archives, there are dozens of individuals, some still living in or around the village and others from various parts of the world, who have kindly contributed many others. I have attempted to list all of the contributors below but if I have missed any I apologize and I thank you all here.

With some of the photos there are often several unidentified people and others raise questions about locations or the history of a building etc. I’ve had invaluable help with such details from many people and in particular I would like to thank James Brown, Jim Empson, Keith Worboys and others.

Special thanks go to Peter Swannell, a long-time member of the History Society whose prodigious knowledge of the village & its people throughout the 20th century has been invaluable. Without Peter’s remarkable memory, many of the details of the old photos & the names of the people featured would be missing. In short, without his help it would be pointless to display many of them – they would just be unidentified ‘old photos’.

Gamlingay is quite unique in that, as James Brown states in his excellent book: ‘Villagers’, it is “probably one of the best-documented villages in England…”. I would like to think that Gamlingay Photos adds to that resource.


Contributors (in no particular order)
Catherine & Jack of Merton Manor Farm – James Brown – Diana Scott – Jim Empson – Peter Swannell – Peter & Jenny Wright – June & Sid Cole – Olive Sewell – Bridget Smith – Phillip Gorton – Clive Eaton – Joan Peacock – Jean Lyons – Kath Gilbert – Maureen Arrowsmith – The Worboys Family – Jackie Brend – Ishbel Beatty – Jean Gurney – Josie Croot – Keith Taylor – Michael Swannell – Frank Stevens – Jennifer Mathews (nee Cade) – Richard Atkinson –  Alan & Pauline Garthwaite – Ken Page – Barbara Dickerson – Tim Kitchener – Barclays Bank Archives – Andrew Sawyer/Gwen Sharpe – Peter Wisson –  Nicola Weston – David Tassell – Peter Travis – Janet Duffin – Darren Jones – Charles Grelli – Jean Lloyd – Anne Brown – Richard Alan Nelson – Malcolm Freestone – Mick Knight – Andrea Carter – Garry Brooks – Dean & Carole Cownden-Hayden – Hugh Wakefield – Betty Harvey – Angela Saunderson – Steve Owen/Jack Waldock – Alistair Smith (& others).


I have been collecting vintage photographs for a number of years from a variety of sources – family & friends, auctions, car boot sales, etc.
In a few cases I have so far been unable to determine the identity of the photographers or owners of the works.
If anyone owns copyright or objects to the use of any of these photos you may contact me via the form below and I will immediately remove the picture(s) in question.
Please note: The reference number of any photo appears with its description e.g., GDHS1109. Please quote this number when referring to any particular photo.


The majority of the photos here displayed were suffering from age-related problems when I acquired them. They were either faded, torn, stained, cracked or dirty and in many cases, had a combination of all these problems.
As a consequence, the main bulk of the work in producing this website involved restoring and repairing them.
So, if you have photos that have seen better days, don’t despair. Most of them can be restored and reprinted (usually larger than the original).
Please contact me for more details. Comments or questions are welcome.

David Allen


You can contact me by email at gamlingayphotos@gmail.com or by telephone on 01767 651472 (evenings).


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