Alfred Loughton was a resident of Southwell who lived in the town from the 1880s until his death in 1953. In addition to a varied career of running a hardware shop and manufacturing bicycles and violins he was a highly accomplished photographer. He photographed extensively throughout Nottinghamshire and Southwell, where the Minster featured prominently. He also toured Britain, on one of his bicycles, and his photographs cover many counties. During his lifetime he exhibited widely and received many international awards. After his death in 1953 his family donated many of his photographs to Southwell Minster.
The Minster Library held the collection until a group of adult students, who were visiting Southwell Minster on a separate matter, were made aware of the collection that was in storage. This lucky encounter prompted a desire among some of the group to make the photographs available to the wider public. A new project group was formed to promote “Loughton’s Legacy”, and in 2004 the project received a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to make this collection of Alfred Loughton’s photographs available to the community.
The grant enabled the group to carry out the cataloguing of the collection and all the images were digitised. These digital images were passed to the Southwell Local History Society and now have been made available to the Southwell Civic Society website. Through our website the objective of the Loughton’s Legacy project can be met and more of Alfred Loughton’s memorable images can be appreciated by the wider public.