History of Ashby Camera Club

 History of Ashby Camera Club

We are very proud to be able to celebrate 50 continuous years of Ashby camera Club. It was formed in Sept 1967 from a Photography Evening class run the previous year by Bill Pratt  in the Science Labs at Ivanhoe Community College which was ideal for demonstrating Black & white film developing and printing. Just about every member developed & printed their own B&W images at this time. The downside of the lab was that the high stools became very uncomfortable after an hour or so.. Virtually all the students of the class became Club Members and Ashby camera Club was born. The subscriptions for the club was the princely sum of £1 5 shillings or about £1.25 in todays money with 5 shillings going to the college .  At this time there was no charge for the room.

The first Secretary of the club was in fact from London 'Terry Stone' who was working at Drakelow Power Station but residing in Ashby.  Fred Wardle took over the reigns  at the end of the first year when Terry moved from the area with his job.  We are delighted that Fred has joined us this evening to join our celebrations.

As the club found its legs and became aware of other clubs, in 1968, Ashby travelled to Long Eaton for its first competition and back to Ashby for its return leg. I am of the understanding that we lost that competition and I'm glad to say we haven't lost that edge either.

The next year the club applied & joined the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain in 1969 through the Midland Counties Area. To which we are still a member.  This enabled ACC to learn and become a part of the wider photographic scene and introduce themselves to other local clubs. It is here that annual photographic battles started with the likes of Burton and South Derbyshire followed by Coalville, Melbourne, Drakelow Power Station Shepshed and Loughborough  Even today we still meet annually with Burton, Coalville, Melbourne & Shepshed but also adding Earl Shilton over recent years.

Two things which were unique to Ashby that no other club did was 1 we held & sold film stock to members at less than shop prices as we bought in bulk  so there was never any excuse for having no film. The other was that it met through out the summer visiting places of interest in the area. This again is still unique to Ashby. 

The club progressed from strength to strength with visiting lectures, competitions and practical evenings like portraiture, so the club needed a room that would be comfortable, practical and an area that they could clear the floor.  So on evenings like this the club moved back into the main college block and had a class room. This went on for some years until in the late 70's or early 80's until an extension was built on the back of Ivanhoe College.  It was a large carpeted room with loose furniture and had an annex with sinks and worktops. We applied for its use on a Thursday night and were delighted when the club was given the room.  So the club gave up its nomadic life and settled into the new Pithivier Room which became its new home for the next 22 years or so.

After a number of years the status of the clubs within the Community College changed and we were no longer a college club but became an affiliated club. This gave the club a bit more freedom as we were not audited by the college anymore and we could manage our own finances.  The downside was that we now had to pay for the room hire but this was included in the members subscriptions. The club merrily went from strength to strength with membership in the thirties.

 It was in 1975 that it was voiced that it would be nice to have an annual dinner, so it was duly booked at the "Old Bull" Market Street Ashby. However this first event was remembered probably more for its food poisoning rather than the event itself. However it has become an annual fixture ever since.

Then in 2002/03 the college put up the room hire by £86 per year and this we were told would go up each year as the college reduced its subsidy for affiliated clubs. This would mean that the club faced a room hire charge of £35 per night and with its current membership it was agreed was un-sustainable for the club. So for the 2005/06 Autumn/Winter programme the club moved and this  was going to be a wrench from the Pithivier Room which was an envious room that we had grown into.

Finding somewhere else in Ashby was very difficult within our budget range but we found the "The Cottage" in St Helens Church Yard was available. This wasn't perfect as it meant changing our meeting night from Thursday to Wednesday and also had to miss the last Wednesday of each month.

We settled in quite quickly and all our members moved with us and we actually gained a few new ones.  It was a nice little venue and we could make our own refreshments, which was great. But the emphasis was on little and we soon realised that it was too small & cramped to host other clubs at competition times.  I seem to remember we had to find other temporary venues on holding home competitions.  So it was agreed that Ashby Camera Club would need to find a new home again if it was to survive.Then the chance to come to Smisby arose,  which although out of town, it  was decided it was ideal for the club in relation to its size, amenities & cost. So we moved here in September 2006.

The transition from film to digital at this time was the biggest change in photography in our life time and the club needed to keep up with its members in this change but the cost of buying a laptop computer, digital projector and Photoshop software was prohibitive. The club needed to find in the region of £4000.  Having this equipment on club evenings would allow us to embrace the new digital era for club competitions and give us the ability to demonstrate digital techniques which was new to us all.

The club applied for and was granted a Lottery Grant in 2006 and this was spear headed by Mike Frost, who later admitted that if he had known prior that it was going to be such a major task he might not have volunteered to do it.  The club is always open to change and we try to embrace new ideas and software and we try to keep up with the times.

And the rest they say is history or is it the Future.