Along the Cam and the Great Ouse

I mentioned a pile of random and varied books I had on the bookcase beside me here while I write and one of them is “Along the Cam and the Great Ouse with Briscoe Snelson” edited by Peter Snelson. It is a selection of photos of the countryside along and around the two rivers as they weave their way towards the Wash. I knew these rivers very well when I was young, cycling beside them, canoeing on them, and in the upper reaches of the Cam swimming in them. I wouldn’t dare now with the pollution these days!

This is the blurb on the back of this lovely book which is full of captivating photos from the first half of the twentieth century:

“Briscoe Snelson was one of the leading amateur photographers of his day. Between 1935 and 1955, he developed a distinctive photographic style, specialising in rural landscape. He was a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and was a judge at the ‘Royal’ exhibitions. Before he died, he deposited many of his lantern slides, prints and negatives in the Cambridgeshire Collection at Cambridgeshire Collection at Cambridge Central Library. Now his son, Peter, has selected 100 of his photographs taken along the Great Ouse and the Cam. Most have been chosen for their pictorial excellence, some for their historical interest. They include quiet river reaches and angry floods, locks and staunches, mills and bridges, farms and churches, country cottages and riverside pubs. Some of the scenes are virtually the same today as they were half a century ago. Others have changed beyond recognition. This is not a guide book in the usual sense of the term. But many will be stimulated by it to go and see for themselves some of the places Briscoe Snelson photographed 50 or so years ago. ‘Along the Cam and Great Ouse‘ will appeal to all those who know those rivers, or would like to know them better.

“50 or so years ago” would be pre-1945 as this beautiful, interesting and historic book was published in 1995.