SOUTHPORT PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
DIGITAL GROUP
2003 Outing

All Our Yesterdays.
Monday 21st July saw seventeen members of the digital group, including friends from other clubs, take a stroll down Memory Lane. The venue for our trip, The Black Country Living Museum at Dudley, proved to provide a wealth excellent photo opportunities ranging from macro shots of rusted machinery to portraits of people in period costume.
The museum aims to re-create the industrial and social heritage of the West Midlands from the Victorian era to the 1930's. Most of the buildings have been transported to the site from their original locations and re-built "brick by brick", the interiors containing many original artefacts. From the teacher in the school to the glass engraver in his workshop all the staff were more than pleased to pose for photographs.
Several members had a trip down the mine whilst one intrepid member travelled through the canal tunnels on a barge, though he declined to have a go at "legging": a means of travelling through the tunnel in days when the barges were horse-drawn which entailed the crew lying on their backs and using their feet against the sides of the tunnel to propel the craft whilst the horses went the long way round.
An occasional shower didn't dampen the enthusiasm of our happy little band as we wandered the 26 acre site in search of pictures. Sadly, there simply wasn't time to see everything, even though our visit lasted six hours! So as we sat drinking tea in the cafe at the end of the day swapping tales, we reflected on what had not only been a day trip but a journey to "all our yesterdays".
Kathryn.