The 85-year career of Yorkshire photographer goes on display at Ryedale Folk Museum

It was gut instinct and his innate local knowledge that gave Geoffrey Willey arguably his greatest scoop – a photograph of Winston Churchill.
Geoffrey Willeys famous snap of Sir Winston Churchill in Scarborough in 1952. (Geoffrey Willey).Geoffrey Willeys famous snap of Sir Winston Churchill in Scarborough in 1952. (Geoffrey Willey).
Geoffrey Willeys famous snap of Sir Winston Churchill in Scarborough in 1952. (Geoffrey Willey).

The then prime minister visited Scarborough in 1952 for the Conservative Party conference and was keen to avoid the cameras.

Fleet Street’s finest knew he was coming in by train and gathered at the town’s railway station to capture the wartime hero’s arrival. What they didn’t know was that Churchill had left the train at an earlier stop and made his way to Scarborough undetected. Or at least almost undetected. Rather than following the throng to the station, Geoffrey Willey, a local freelance photographer, headed for the Grand Hotel and it was here that he got his photograph of Churchill which ended up in many of the next day’s newspapers.

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“In fact, Geoffrey’s photo from that trip is one of the only images to mark the prime minister’s arrival in Scarborough,” says Holly Smith, project officer at Ryedale Folk Museum in the North York Moors National Park.

This shot of the South Bay open-air pool captures the large crowds that flocked to the town. 1930s. (GW).This shot of the South Bay open-air pool captures the large crowds that flocked to the town. 1930s. (GW).
This shot of the South Bay open-air pool captures the large crowds that flocked to the town. 1930s. (GW).

The man who took that picture was, like Churchill, a remarkable man, spending more than 85 years photographing the changing faces and landscape of the Yorkshire coast and the North Ridings.

Willey was born in Honley, in West Yorkshire, in 1911 and moved to Scarborough with his family eight years later. His passion for photography began when he received a camera for his 11th birthday. “As a boy, growing up in Scarborough, he had saved his pocket money to buy ever newer and better cameras – much to the chagrin of his family,” says Smith.

Parallel careers of Henry Moore and Bill Brandt explored in new Hepworth Wakefield exhibition“What’s interesting is his first camera was a Box Brownie and at the end of his life he was taking digital photographs, which just shows the incredible technological changes he saw during his lifetime. He started his photography and cine film experiments exploring Scarborough and the surrounding area, and he became this great documenter of this part of North Yorkshire,” says Smith.

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And yet many people will never have heard of him before. “He was an ordinary man who took photographs of the North Ridings, and that’s what makes him interesting. No one’s heard of him but he’s got these amazing photographs.”

The man behind the lens. (GW)The man behind the lens. (GW)
The man behind the lens. (GW)

He was taking pictures right up until the end of his life. “People who knew him commented on his strong character and how witty he could be, and he would still come down to the museum to see what was going on - he was very much involved in community life.”

Willey died in 2015 at the venerable age of 103, and bequeathed his collection of photographs, slides, cine film and cameras to the Ryedale Folk Museum which is hosting a new exhibition – A Life Through The Lens.

It features around 70 of his pictures, the earliest of which date back to the 1920s, as well as rare cine film footage which has been digitised with help from the Yorkshire Film Archive.

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How Jude Palmer captured year in life of Leeds for stunning book and exhibition“There are scenes of rural Yorkshire and a particularly interesting film that captures the famous Scarborough ‘Skipping Day’ – held every year on Shrove Tuesday,” says Smith.

Willey’s fascination with the Yorkshire countryside courses through his work. He was a keen rambler and enjoyed exploring some of the lesser known nooks and crannies and photographing the flora and fauna of the moors and villages.

“He lived a really varied life and in the exhibition we focus on the man as well as his work,” says Smith.

York artist Harland Miller returns 'home' to city with new exhibitionAmong these other strands is Willey’s weirdly wonderful role as resident photographer and frogman for the government-sponsored Institute of Seaweed Research, based in Scotland. “This took him to the lochs and Highlands, to Inverness, Orkney and Musselburgh, where he found himself photographing and cataloguing seaweed, including on the seabed itself,” says Smith.

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Just as he was a unique, inquisitive character, so his collection of photographs are a chronicle of the world he inhabited. “He took photographs of archaeological digs on the moors, he photographed Scarborough during its heyday and for decades he documented everyday life and it really is rare to see a collection like this.”

Geoffrey Willey/A Life Through the Lens is on at the Art Gallery at Ryedale Folk Museum until March 29. Entry to the gallery is free. For more details visit www.ryedalefolkmuseum.co.uk/art-gallery