The Spooner Album
This was originally a photograph album of the Festiniog Railway put together by the Spooner family in the 1880s. There may have been more than one copy but an original is now in the Gwynedd Archives.
It was a wish of the late Michael Seymour (former FR Archivist) that the contents of the Spooner Album be made available, in large format, for the benefit of all and he left a legacy for this purpose. His wish has come true with the publication of a new, revised, edition. Not only does this contain high quality reproductions of all the original album photographs accompanied by informative captions but, in addition, extra contemporary material has been sought out to provide a perfect accompaniment. The highest of production standards have been applied to the new volume of which there was only one printing.
Besides the forty plus large format reproductions (in sepia) of the original album photographs taken by R H Bleasdale during August 1887, four or five of his photos which are not in the album have been included, plus at least one not even included in his own list! Detailed captions for the photographs themselves have been compiled by FR Archivist Adrian Gray, using extensive notes left by his predecessor, Michael Seymour. More historic images, carefully selected from the FR Archives, have been added to further inform and delight on every aspect of the railway.
The Album photographs themselves have been laser scanned for absolute fidelity and are printed in sepia tones. The book is in A4 landscape format printed on heavyweight (170gsm) art paper. 120 pages, casebound with glazed paper jacket. Supplied complete with matching portrait slip case, title embossed on the spine, for protection and easy storage on the bookshelf..[1]
The album is highly recommended and available from Amazon, the FR's online shop or of course the shop at Harbour Station. A proportion of the profits from this book will go towards further Heritage Group projects. A selection of images from the album (but not by Bleasdale) are shown below, others (not shown here) have been used to illustrate pages for Merddin Emrys and Little Giant.
References[edit]
- ^ Gray, Adrian C.; Roy C Link (2003). The Spooner Album. Garndolbenmaen: RCL Publications. ISBN 0-953876349. OCLC 60837572.