Skipton photographer provides a picture of the past (From Craven Herald)

Skipton photographer provides a picture of the past

2:40pm Thursday 9th August 2012 in Leisure

Evocative photographs, snapped by a young man when the Queen came to the throne in 1952, are to go on show at Skipton ’s Holy Trinity Church.

The 48 pictures were taken by Henry Meyer, who is now 80, and depict a time when it was still the role of a man to “woo” his woman, when you could still buy a British-made car and coal was “king.”

His pictures also show intimate moments of courting couples, including Mr Meyer and his girlfriend Sheila, who later became his wife.

Other photographs include hand harvesting, besom-making in Tadley, Hampshire, and the funeral train of George VI passing Hatfield on its way from Sandringham to London.

All the images were taken in 1952 when Mr Meyer was 20 and living in Winchester. He has lived in Skipton since 1962. He used a Voigtlander or a post-war British made Agiflex camera and developed the film himself.

“It was a much more challenging thing to take pictures in those days,” said retired teacher Mr Meyer, who also has his work on permanent show at Skipton’s Mill Bridge Gallery. “I did my own developing and printing, but the film we had to use was rubbish Although the pictures are not all technically perfect, I hope they may bring back memories to some or provide a glimpse of history to others,” he said.

The exhibition runs from Saturday to Monday, August 27.