Stanley Bracewell Collection

iBase ID

279899

Title

Stanley Bracewell Collection

Description

John Stanley Bracewell, he was generally known as 'Stanley', was born in Winewall, Colne in 1926. The son of Williamson Wood Bracewell, a textile worker. After leaving school, Stanley found work in the textile trade, as a tape labourer. It is likely he worked at Valley Mills for Amos Nelson, because, by the early 1950's he had a job as a gardener at Gledstone Hall, the home of Sir Amos Nelson. Perhaps this is where his interest in natural history and plants developed. In the late 1950's Stanley obtained a job with Nelson Corporation, working in the Parks Department, and he stayed with the council for the rest of his working life. The council maintained properties for staff in two of the parks, Victoria and Marsden, and Stanley and his wife lived in these for several years. A good number of the images in the collection are of these two parks and it is obvious that Stanley must have carried his camera around with him while at work.

The natural world was not Stanley's only interest, he liked to record local events, processions, concerts and the like. One particular event he rcorded was the impact of the construction of the M65 motorway through Brierfield and Nelson. His interest in local history led to him joining Nelson Local History Society and he went on a number of their excursions over the years. Images taken during those trips also feature in the collection. He found great pleasure in walking the highways and byways of the Pendle district, always with his camera for company; unfortunately, he did not always record the locations he was visiting, so there are several images which are still uncatalogued.

The images currently indexed within the Red Rose Collection form only part of the collection which was donated to the library following Stanley's death in 2009 aged 82.

Summary