Board's: Buxton and High Peak in the frame

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We look at a new book showcasing a selection of images of Buxton and the High Peak from the Board collection of glass-plate negatives. It is the second book on Board’s from authors Mike Bentley, Mike Langham and Colin Wells.

This picture of a curbside filling station was taken in the 1950s at Rowsley, at the junction of the A6 to Matlock and the road to Chatsworth, via Beeley

Post office management from the Quadrant, Buxton, publicly thank postmen for their efforts delivering mail, on foot, in arduous winter conditions

A domestic science class at Cavendish Girls’ School, Buxton, in the 1930s

Eggs being graded and packed at the Derbyshire Egg Station in Great Longstone during the Second World War

BOARD’S photographic business opened in Buxton’s Devonshire Colonnade in the mid-1920s. When the firm closed in the 1970s its collection of glass-plate negatives, chronicling 20th century life in the area, was donated to the town’s museum for safe-keeping.

While the authors’ first book on the firm concentrated on images of Buxton and its immediate surrounds, this second volume follows photographer J R Board out and about on assignments in some of the towns and villages of the High Peak.

It also shows the development of Buxton throughout the century, from a town reliant upon the medicinal qualities of its water, to its reinvention as an inland resort and conference centre.

Many aspects of life in the area are showcased in the book, displaying the incredible variety of jobs undertaken by the photographic firm.

Everything from road haulage and motor garages at Chapel-en-le-Frith to egg grading and packing in Great Longstone is featured in the book.

James Robert Board originated from Sheffield where he had worked and probably trained at a photographic firm called Watsons.

He moved to Buxton in the early years of the 20th century, finding employment with photographic firm Hunters. When Robert Forgy Hunter left to further his fortunes in London, Board took over the business.

Board quickly established an impressive reputation which brought to his studio such luminaries as politician David Lloyd George, playwright George Bernard Shaw and the families of the Dukes of Devonshire.

Over more than 40 years, Board and his stepson, John Meddins, produced a large collection of photographs using old-style half-plate cameras.

This collection, now at Buxton Museum and Art Gallery, has been catalogued by the book’s authors.

Buxton and the High Peak from the Board Collection, published by Tempus Publishing (ISBN 0-7524-3951-0) is out now, priced £12.99.