Grandad's Guildford at Guildford House Gallery

A glimpse of Guildford from the pioneering days of photography was shown as part of the "Memories of Guildford" Exhibition at Guildford House Gallery in May when the Circle Eight Film Group presented their magic lantern show 'Grandad's Guildford'. Terence Patrick was narrator for the performance which was enjoyed by a full house.

'Grandad's Guildford' is a collection of Victorian lantern slides, which are rarely seen in public, picturing Guildford's townsfolk and their way of life at the time of the dawning of photography in the 1860s right through the century that followed to the 1960s. Many local events from the town's past feature in the show including Coronations, Jubilees and Carnivals, as well as all-too-familiar street scenes in Victorian times. While these images of Guildford's past are an obvious fascination to local history buffs, they also provide today's Guildfordian's with an interesting view of familiar places and in many cases, how little remains unchanged.

Although the show's title 'Grandad's Guildford' is self explanatory, referring to the Town at around the time of the average-aged citizen's grandparents, most of the photographs in this slide show were actually taken and collected by three generations of the Patrick family. It was James Patrick who took most of the slides between 1860 and 1890. He was the Stoke Rate Collector by profession and served as the secretary of the West Surrey Benefit Society - a forerunner of today's welfare state.

The later slides were taken by his son William, who was the secretary of the Royal Surrey County Hospital from 1900 to 1931. He was involved in many other aspects of Guildford's civic life and served as a Councillor on Guildford Corporation from 1907 until 1929, including three years as Mayor from 1910 to 1913. William's son, Reg Patrick, a BBC Engineer by profession, continued the family tradition of photographing his home town and took many of the more recent photos in the collection between the 1920s and the 1960s.