Club History.
Our Club was formed following the 1966 Poulton Festival Week celebrations. A Photographic Competition had been organised as part of the cultural activities and had attracted good support. Afterwards, a group of these enthusiasts got together and formed the Society.
The early roll-call was one of the most illustrious in the North-West. They included Ted Gray and Roger Goodwill, both lecturers in Photography at the Blackpool College, Baron Woods and Jake Loddington.
The Club rapidly established its reputation in the L&CPU, and it won the Tansley Memorial Shield (for black and white photography, shown on the right) in only its second year of membership. Poulton members provided lecturers and judges for other clubs in the area and the reputation of the Society quickly spread.
The club logo, a lith image of the stocks in Poulton town centre, was designed by Jake Loddington in the early days of the Society's existence. He regarded his efforts as a temporary design and expressed surprise that his symbol is still in use, sixty years later. You will see it on every page of this website.
As well as our early affiliation to the Lancashire and Cheshire Photographic Union, we became closely involved with other local Societies on the Fylde Coast, forming the Joint Fylde Photographic Societies (JFPS). Through this body, competitions, exhibitions and lectures were staged to promote photography in the wider community. In recent years, however, the JFPS shrank in size to only three societies (Poulton, Lytham St Annes PS and HASSRA Fylde PS) and was finally wound up in 2014.
At first, the Club met in the British Legion hut, off Hardhorn Road, every other Thursday. Within twelve months, however, sound-proofing problems from the boisterous domino club had forced a move to the ‘Old Library’. This was the building opposite the Stocks Restaurant, on the Queen’s Square corner, which had changed its function when the present Library was built. It had become the ‘Luncheon Club’, where daily lunches were served to the elderly in the town. This building is now a dress-makers shop, shown on the right. Its main characteristic was the smallness of the meeting room, which meant that the members soon got to know each other very well indeed! Many successful meetings were staged, however, including practical demonstrations of colour printing. At the start of the club's third year, in September 1968, we switched to meeting every week. The club has always taken a break during the summer months of June, July and August.
In time, membership numbers out-grew the Luncheon Club and so in 1975 we moved to the Geography Room of Poulton-le-Fylde College, shown on the left. This building is now the Civic Centre of Wyre Borough Council, on Breck Road, but was then a successful Teacher Training College. Chairman Jake Loddington had to wheelbarrow equipment needed for each meeting from his home on adjacent Derby Road until we moved from an outlying classroom into the main building. When the college closed in 1982 the Photographic Society had to find an alternative meeting place, and it was at this time that we moved to our present premises in the Methodist Church on Queensway, Poulton-le-Fylde, shown below.
Our comfortable club-room, on the first floor of the integral Church Hall, served us extremely well for over 40 years. We enjoyed use of catering and storage facilities and there is a chair-lift fitted to the rear stairs. In recent years, however, our membership swelled and the room became a little cramped on occasion. We moved downstairs to our present larger clubroom in late 2017.
In April 2016 the Society celebrated its 50th Anniversary Year with a dinner at Singleton Lodge. Past chairmen were all invited and we were pleased that many of them were able to join us.
We were also pleased that one of our past chairmen, Chris Whyham, was able to accept our offer of Honorary Life Membership at the dinner, joining Ted Gray and Roger Goodwill, who were also present. Sadly, Chris died in October 2017.
Chairman Phil Hodson DPAGB EFIAP BPE1* is shown delivering his response to the toast proposed to the Society by Roger Goodwill. More photos can be seen on the Downloads page of this website or click here.
Throughout our history, the Thursday meetings of the Society have been remembered for their friendliness and good humour and the willingness of our members to help each other.
Long may the Club endure, to foster the spirit of Photography (or Imaging!) in Poulton-le-Fylde.