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 has recently expressed surprise that his symbol is still in use, fifty 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.
In time, membership numbers out-grew our first meeting venue, the Luncheon Club on the corner of Hardhorn Road and Queens Square, and so in 1975 we moved to the Geography Room of Poulton-le-Fylde College, shown on the right.
This building is now the Civic Centre of Wyre Borough Council, on Breck Road, but was then a successful Teacher Training College.
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 30 years. We enjoyed use of catering and storage facilities and there is a chair-lift fitted to the rear stairs. In the last few 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.