Croeso i Glwb Camera Conwy

The Archive

Since  2005 Conwy Camera Club has collected more than 500 photos taken by past and present members of the club. Some of the images, usually winners of club competitions, represent the creativity, enthusiasm and skill of club members over the decades. Others record ordinary scenes, mostly in North Wales, in the distant or recent past or document changes in progress, such as construction of the A55 road or demolition of buildings on Conwy Quay.

Here is a small sample of the work held in the archive, which is continuing to expand. The best place to view more archive images is at the Conwy Festival of Photography, held annually by the club in late summer.

HMS Royal Oak

Harry Rogers Jones  c.1937

There were no caption details with this photo, but we believe it shows HMS Royal Oak on a recruitment visit to Llandudno. The ship was sunk in Scapa Flow, Orkney, on 14 October 1939. Many of the 833 who died on board were boy soldiers. Any further information about this event would be welcome!

Further details of the ship are here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/8291329.stm

Another Marilyn perhaps?

Eric Davies  c1992

Eric’s preference for spontaneous people pictures is summed up in this portrait of one of his nieces. It won the People’s Vote at the 2001 Conwy Festival of Photography, the first time the public had been asked to vote for their favourite image in the print exhibition.

Steam at Penmaenmawr

Gwyn Roberts, 1966

A steam loco collecting stone from Penmaenmawr was an everyday scene 1966, when Gwyn Roberts took this photo. Soon afterwards, diesels took over and by now the A55 Expressway runs between the railway and the seafront.

A55 construction

Peter Lawton

The club’s archive includes a number of pictures of the A55 under construction, including this one of the Colwyn Bay bypass in 1983.

Barn owlets

Ronald Thompson

Nowhere in North Wales was too inaccessible for Ronald Thompson if there was a chance of a good natural history picture. He photographed this family group in St Asaph Cathedral, 60ft up from the ground.

Nantlle Vale

Michael Porter

The late Michael Porter excelled in monochrome landscapes of Snowdonia. This is one of his prints from the 1970s.

Menai Strait and Britannia Bridge

Harry Rogers Jones

This picture shows the railway bridge from the mainland to Anglesey in its original guise, before a fire destroyed the original tubes in the 1970s.

Storm Light Over Duich

Helen James, 1973

Helen James was a master of monochrome work in the darkroom, as this shot of Duich Castle, Ross Shire, demonstrates.

Loading fish at Conwy

Walter Harris, c 1965

A fascinating view of fish packed in ice in wooden crates being loaded onto a lorry alongside the boats at Conwy Quay.