No-one knows more than Ann Kilbey about the story of the origins and development of the archive of local photographs known as Pennine Horizons Digital Archive. She was there at its inception and has been central to its growth over many years. Unsurprisingly, her talk to Hebden Bridge Local History Society was illustrated by fascinating historical photographs. Many of these came from the collection of Alice Longstaff who is most famous for her shop at West End in Hebden Bridge.
The Westerman in question was Crossley Westerman a tailor’s cutter from Hebden Bridge, who started that photography business at 25 West End in 1892. It was very successful and after his death his daughter Ada Westerman, an accomplished portrait photographer, took over. In 1921, needing an apprentice, she placed an advertisement in the shop window. 14 year old Alice Longstaff saw it, applied and began her long career.
Alice was born in 1907 at Little Learings in Colden. Wonderfully, we heard from Alice herself about her education at Colden School in an interview recorded in 1984. She was obviously an intelligent girl, gaining a county minor scholarship that allowed her to have a better education, but which she was willing to give up (at a financial cost) to start her career at Westerman’s photographers. By 1935 she was able to buy the business.
She focused on portraiture, recording the high days of people’s lives. Alice described the heavy glass plates that she had to carry to weddings – only six at a time, which meant some very careful rationing of possible shots. Unthinkable today, when we have forgotten the restriction of even the 36 shot rolls of film that Alice found so liberating when she acquired her beloved Rolleiflex. Another important staple of a time before colour photography was the skill of tinting the portraits, which involved meticulous colour matching.
People loved to have their portraits taken, not only for weddings and fancy evening events but also to capture smiling children in chapel processions and loved family members in unfamiliar uniform on the eve of war. Alice Longstaff’s shop became an institution in the town, and to get your photo displayed in the window was a source of pride. She died in 1992 after 70 years in the business and left the shop and its contents to Frank Woolrych.
This was the beginning of a project that has grown into something so much bigger. Frank believed that you could not own such a collection and that something had to be done to safeguard and make that heritage available to the community. There was a dynamic coincidence of people of vision and determination who saw beyond the collection. Frank Woolrych and Ann Kilbey were at its heart.
The key to expansion was digitisation and publicity. Ann and Frank worked with Pennine Heritage and many volunteers to create the archive at Birchcliffe which now holds over 71,000 images of people, places and buildings. Publicising the collection through exhibitions, publications and events led others to offer their own photographs to be digitised and preserved. Plans are underway to make the website better yet.
Image courtesy of Pennine Horizons Digital Archive