Poster girls reunite for a trip down Memory Lane
Three friends from South Bristol who attended an event at KWMC were delighted to see themselves on the advertising poster – as young girls in a photo taken 60 years ago.
Know Your South Bristol was held at KWMC on Saturday 23rd June, as part of a series of events across the city to encourage people to bring in their old photos, films and slides to explore local history and culture in the community.
Pat Hall (77) of Hengrove, Mavis Barnes (78) from Backwell and Shirley Pearson (77) from Whitchurch were all in a photo taken around 1951 by Brisol-based photographer George Gallop of the St Barnabas Church Girls Hockey Team in Knowle.
The event was organised by Bristol University and KWMC and supported by Brislington Community Partnership, Brislington Community Archaeology Project, Greater Bedminster Neighbourhood Partnership and Reflex Camera Club.
Visitors had the chance to view archaeological finds from the regional landscape, watch old films, and swap stories.
Pat said: “We thoroughly enjoyed the event and we had a good laugh. When I saw it on the poster I said we were quite celebrities, we felt like the Tiller girls, like bursting into song. Four of the people in the picture have now died. Mavis, Shirley and I are still good friends and still meet regularly. It’s amazing really when you think it was over 60 years ago we were in the St Barnabas youth club… “
Shirley added: “ I thought it was great when I saw us on the poster… It was a lovely event as it brought back a lot of memories and got you talking about all kinds of things.”
The event was the fifth in a series of Know Your Bristol workshops run by Bristol University and Bristol City Council, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the organization that funds academic research in the arts.
Above: the original photograph, taken in 1952 by George Gallop. View his Flickr archive here
