A COLLECTION of remarkable pictures of Warrington the past are being updated for the 21st century thanks to a famous society.

Warrington Photographic Society was established in 1886 and is the borough’s oldest camera club, with about 50 members in total.

The society hosts a varied winter programme of activities, mainly lectures, practical demonstrations and club competition evenings. It also has an annual exhibition of member’s work.

The society has also maintained a unique collection of antique or ‘magic’ lantern slides which date back to the early days of the club in the 1890s up to the 1960s, when production of glass slides ceased.

Maggie Bullock, from the group, takes up the story.

She said: “The collection is a fascinating journey through history and includes a variety of subjects not just in the north west but also throughout the UK, as well as Europe.

“The society’s lantern slide collection of 748 images is managed by one of the club’s members Martin Berry.

“Over the past few years Martin has started to track down some of the locations, views, buildings, villages etc and then taken a modern up to date image for comparison. These have been added to the lectures and provide a fascinating insight into the changes that have taken place over the last century.”

He has produced two lantern slide lectures which are available for booking.

In 2015 the club obtained more than 300 slides from past member Daisy Snoddy, an accomplished photographer and the fire female president of the Lancashire and Cheshire Photographic Union (L&CPU).

Maggie added: “A new ‘lantern light’ project has recently been established with the objectives of scanning the new Daisy Snoddy slides and creating a third touring lecturing including these new images.

“Warrington Photographic Society is grateful for the support of the Cheshire Community Foundation, who has provided funding for us to digitise this collection and give presentations to groups of older people in the Warrington area.

“A key project objective is to share these historical slides with the community and possibly obtain feedback and information about locations of the images.”

If your club, organisation or care home is interested in the lantern slide collection and a presentation email info@warringtonps.co.uk.

The society is always looking for new members and meets weekly on a Tuesday from September to April, at the Quays Community Centre in Thelwall between 7pm and 10pm with an interesting programme of lectures and activities.

n Visit the society website at warringtonps.co.uk for the 2018/19 programme or facebook.com/warringtonps.