The photographic heritage

If it seems as if the rate of change on the site has slowed slightly recently, it is becuase we have been blessed by being allowed to scan in two wonderful collections of Cavendish Photographs, those of Jeremy Eldridge and Stan Thompson.

These photographs take a lot of time to scan and prepare for publication on the site. Why tamper with them at all? Perhaps we can illustrate why by taking a part of a postcard from around 1900

The Lower Road, Cavendish looking towards the United Reformed Church
The original photograph

this photograph retains a huge amount of information. it just isn't easy to see. In fact, this shot contains views of long-demolished houses of which there seem to be no other surviving record at all. The original photo is of enormous value and must be preserved at all costs, but we can do some work on the scanned version to bring out that detail. In this example, we have changed the levels, and removed some of the blemishes, particularly where they mislead the eye. Often, re-focusing is necessary. Here it probably isn't but we've done some re-focusing just to show how useful it is to get to detail.

The Lower Road, Cavendish looking towards the United Reformed Church
The re-worked image

Obviously, this is becoming like a form of archaeology, and it gets quite exciting when detail that lies unsuspected in a small faded scrap of a photograph comes back to life. Some of the Glemsford Photographs were in such poor condition that I used to collapse in giggles when Terry Baxter brought them to me. There is a real pleasure in bringing them back to life

So when will the new treasures be on the site? Soon, soon. A few more to go but I promise they'll be worth the wait.