Heritage Tours in September

National Heritage Open Days 2015
Visit us 10-12 September for a free tour!
Full details in the HOD website

Photo History East Midlands

Geoff Blackwell ARPS

We have the pleasure of the company of Geoff Blackwell this weekend, who has been enlightening us on the history of photography and how it ends up in Derbyshire; a prequel to Winter's photographers!
We've gone through Nicéphore Niépce, Thomas Wedgewood & Humphry Davy,
Louis Daguerre, and Fox Talbot! Alfred Barber brought the daguerreotype to Nottingham, and by the 1850's there were over 20 studios in Derby!

Geoff Blackwell (centre) in the original photo studio.

Geoff is very kindly going to look into whether 45 Midland Road in the oldest purpose built photo studio in the UK / world. Many earlier studios were added into preexisting spaces.

We're having great feedback from Twitter, do follow us if you have an account!

Many thanks to @WWWinterLtd for a great @heritageopenday. Looking forward to seeing how your #HLFsupported photography project 'develops'!
— HLFEastMids (@HLFEastMids) September 12, 2014

...and Tim Wannacott (currently starring on BBC's Strictly Come Dancing) has been spotted in our window!

Noticed a great portrait of @TimWonnacott in the shop window as I passed @WWWinterLtd in Derby this morning. #bargainhunt #Photography
— martkelly (@martkelly) September 11, 2014

Here is Tim 'behind the scenes' on his visit to the studio after filming with Hubert for the BBC. If you're passing and you see his portrait in our window why not take a selfie with him! :D

Time to Celebrate

We are on a high at the moment - this week we are open for Heritage Open Days AND we have announced phase 1 of our Heritage Lottery Funded archiving project *big cheesy grin*.

Heritage Open Days 2014

In case you've been on Mars and missed all the tweeting, facebook posts and newsletter, we will be open on Thursday 11th, Friday 12th, & Saturday 13th of September as part of National Heritage Open Days. There are many more venues taking place across Derbyshire but we hope you will make a point of dropping in to Winter's for a tour of the premises which this year, in honour of the WW1 centenary will include a few images of British soldiers and German Officer Prisoners of War from the period.
Other lovely points of interest are antique camera equipment, heritage oddments, and the building itself, dating from 1867. You can read a bit more about these on the Heritage Open Days website blog where you can also read about 1000's of exciting heritage events and venues across the UK.

Heritage Lottery Funding

We did it! It has been a long and winding process but phase 1 of our HLF bid has been approved and we are keen to get started.
This will involved preparing a work and storage room, and then on to the interesting bit - working towards archiving the thousands of plate glass negatives. Many of you have kindly already shown interest in volunteering; if it's something you are interested in do get in touch for a volunteer form and we'll take it from there.

Thank you

A quick thank you to everyone who came to last years Heritage Open Days. It was your enthusiasm and support that gave us the memento to take on this endeavour. we also want to thank Jane Middleton-Smith who will be working with us as our professional archivist, and artist-in-residence Debbie Cooper who has been fundamental in guiding us through the process., whilst working on her own project, 'Derby Anon', involving some of our original portraits and the people of Derby (including you?)

National Heritage Open Days

It's that time of the year again!

We are furiously publicising our involvement in National Heritage Open Days this year and we hope to be celebrating some very exciting news (wink wink, nod nod).

Free heritage tours, 11th to 13th September

This will be only our second year of opening up to the public but is the 10th anniversary for National Heritage Open Days and I am delighted to say there are a few more local sites this year including The Silk Mill and St Mary's Bridge Chapel.

It is, of course, also the centenary year of WWI. As many of you will already know, Derby has been behind the glorious and moving poppy installation at the Tower of London (http://poppies.hrp.org.uk/about-the-installation) with the poppies being hand produced by Derby artists on Pride Park.
We will be displaying local photographs from our archives during the open days including images of prisoners of war from camps in Derbyshire and the surrounding counties. We hope it will act as a poignant reminder of all those live affected.

Special guest speaker

We are very excited to confirm that Geoff Blackwell ARPS, writer and researcher and Council Member of The Royal Photographic Society, will be joining us to give a talk on 'The Origins of Photography and the East Midlands'. The talk will take place in the studio at around 10.15 on Saturday 13th September with a maximum of 20 places, but Geoff has kindly offered to repeat the session subject to demand for places. Do phone us asap on 01332 345224 if you would like to book a place!

For more info on our heritage tours and to book your place, check on website heritage page, email us on office@wwwinter.co.uk, or give us a ring on 01332 345224.
You can read about all the different Heritage Open Day events on the national website :-)