Description

Since the development of photography in the middle of nineteenth century, the picture of our pasts provided by the written chronicle, the museum artefact or by failing memory has been augmented by the most vivid and immediate relic of former times, the photograph. Authenticating even as it describes, the photograph is of its time in a way that other representations of the past are not. This photographic portrait of a period at once familiar and remote illustrates the heyday of the English Riviera - when one of the country's most scenic railways brought visitors by the thousand for sun, sea and sand - in two of its most popular towns. United by the sea and having some of Devon's finest countryside as their common backdrop, each town retains the distinctive character acquired when these pictures were taken: Dawlish quieter, and proud possessor of a stately air that not even Torquay or Sidmouth can match: Teignmouth a bustling port. Comprising the work of both professional and gifted amateurs, this fascinating selection draws on a number of private collections and features largely unpublished material. For those who can still remember, it offers a trip down memory lane; for others, and for the area's numerous visitors, a voyage of discovery and surprise.