| I was born in 1940 in Fairford and was brought up and went to school in the town, as did my wife Grace who is one of the daughters of Police Sergeant Fluck. Both of my parents were Fairfordians and there were many generations of ancestors in the town before them. Therefore it seemed very natural to me to collect photographs of Fairford. | 
A Four in Hand outside the Bull Hotel |
Fairford Band 1936 |
The Collection Over the last 30 years my hobby has been the collecting of old photographs of anything to do with Fairford and this collection now numbers many thousands of images of almost every aspect of life in the town over the past 150 years from mid-Victorian times to the present day. The collection has been made either by purchasing postcards and photographs or by borrowing and copying those that belong to others. Many Fairfordians have willingly lent me material for copying and it has been the search for these people that has taken place over the years, because Fairfordians have moved all over the world as well as staying locally or within Great Britain. |
| How is the collection being used? Although, at the moment, the collection remains a personal item to me, a good deal of it has been regularly used to mount public exhibitions etc. For the last few years an exhibition has been an integral part of the Fairford Festival although this has become increasingly more difficult without repeating the pictures. Individuals are always welcome to ask to see relevant sections of the collections when it can be arranged, and many local clubs have also borrowed pictures to enhance their own events. |
Fairford Market c. 1910 |
| Thanks to Fairfordians A large part of the collection has only been made possible by the willingness of those who have photographs to get in touch with me and offer the pictures for copying, and I am always very grateful to those who have cooperated in this way, even though at times I am sure that some of them have been aware that I was encouraging them to do so in a good natured way.
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Appeal for more pictures Although the collection is fairly extensive, there are still some obvious gaps that I am always hoping to fill, and I am sure that those photographs are out there somewhere just waiting to be found. I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to anyone who reads this article and who has photographs of anything to do with Fairford and who would like to help me to expand the collection, to get in touch with me at the following address: Mr Edwin Cuss, 27 Bowling Green Road, Cirencester,
Glos., GL7 2HD |