UK: Old pictures of Bristol discovered under allotment shed
“It’s a very old shed, and for years I would see bits of glass under it and thought it was just greenhouse glass.
By Eugene Byrne
Bristol Live
18 JUL 2020
Excerpt:
The pictures were in the form of negatives on small glass plates. Some were in labelled envelopes and some were cracked, broken or otherwise damaged.
“If it wasn’t for lockdown, we’d never have found them,” Adrian Stevenson said.
Mr Stevenson has had the allotment – and its shed – at the back of Horfield Prison for around ten years. “It’s a very old shed, and for years I would see bits of glass under it and thought it was just greenhouse glass.
“But thanks to lockdown I decided to do some restoration and realised that these weren’t bits of greenhouse glass and thought I’d better take a look at them.”
Once he realised what they were he showed them to his friend Roger Ford, who does voluntary work for Know Your Place Bristol. Mr Ford scanned them and put them on the site.
About 50 of the negatives have been saved, and most of these are now on the website. They mostly appear to have been taken during the summer of 1936, and Mr Ford’s researches suggest that the photographer was probably Henry Ryall, who lived nearby (27 Beauchamp Road) and was presumably the allotment holder at the time.
