A Photographic History of Bray-on-Thames

A view of Monkey Island from 1890
Historical photographs, maps, books and memories available from Francis Frith.

The Frith Collection is recognised as being the only nationally important photographic archive of its kind still in private hands. The Collection was founded by Francis Frith, the pioneer Victorian photographer, in 1860. Today it contains over 365,000 photographs depicting some 7,000 towns and villages throughout Britain – all taken between 1860 and 1970. Taken by the photographers of one company, continuously over a 110 year period, the Collection provides an extraordinarily detailed visual record of the enormous social and structural changes that have taken place in Britain since 1860. As such the Collection forms a topographical record of Britain without equal. Whilst many of the photographs are undoubtedly artistically outstanding, the real value of the archive lies in the personal relevance of individual photographs for anyone with connections to the British Isles. For each town or village there is an average of 80 photographs. These were often taken from the same spot but over many years, thus providing a unique opportunity to study landscapes, streets and buildings across a century and more of change...

Discover more about the visual history of Bray Village at www.francisfrith.com/bray

A unique and priceless record of life in the last Century
Financial Times