Richmond Remembers: Black and white photos of Richmond show a bygone era frozen in time

Now, with a rare showing of a corresponding BBC programme long-thought lost, the stories and memories he sought to reflect are to be shared once more.

A unique showing of BBC2’s Richmond Remembers, last seen in 1986, is to be aired in the Town Hall tomorrow after historian Jane Hatcher recovered an old cassette recording.

Cash’s photographs, from 1945, had been intended to show all aspects of Richmond’s life, its scenery and streetscapes, schools, pubs and farming life.

The later programme, with presenter Eric Robson, then centred on interviews and reflections, including some from Richmond residents featured in the original images.

Ms Hatcher said this was a “rare opportunity” to revisit the past.

“It’s nearly 40 years since the programme was made, and another 40 years before that since the photographs were taken,” she said. “It’s such a world that has gone.

“One of the things that’s interesting, when you play the recording, is the local voices. Not a dialect as such, but a beautiful Richmond accent that we don’t seem to hear very often anymore. These were people talking with a local parlance, which is a delight to hear.”

The British Council had commissioned Cash for the project back in 1945, and he had captured 100 photographs over the course of a week. The intent had been for a travelling exhibition around war-torn Europe under the title The Life of an English Market Town.

Decades later the BBC was to revisit the images for Richmond Remembers, speaking with the honorary curator of Richmondshire Museum Peter Wenham as they were on display.

Bill Feaver, art critic for The Observer, is seen commenting on the photographs as a reflection of the immediate post-war period.

And the programme, to be aired by special permission of the BBC, includes Richmond residents of 1985 as they discuss seeing themselves in the 1945 images.

“There’s a lovely bit, with a barmaid, talking about seeing herself in the photographs,” said Ms Hatcher. “She’s talking about what was available, and when it was allowed to be served.

“Another lady recalls her memories of 1945, and how suddenly there were streetlights. She had only known darkness. She could see such distances, it had astonished her as a teenager.

“All these sorts of details start coming out. There’s all sorts of interesting snippets.”

One thing that stands out to Ms Hatcher is that the church is missing from the images. Perhaps, she said, it’s because the photographer had visited from Monday to Friday.

“The powers that be had pre-planned all the things that were going to happen,” she said. “The market was held in the open air for the first time since before the war.

“It is a bit staged, in a sense,” she added. “But who knows, it’s all gone.”

The video recording, assumed lost, has now been digitised and Richmond Remembers will be shown tomorrow evening (Wednesday, July 5), at 7pm in the Town Hall.

Entry to the talk is by donation.