The Selsey Photo Archive Project was started in 2018, continuing the work of the now disbanded Selsey Society [1987-2015]. During this time, the Society gathered a collection of over 4000 photos of Selsey, dating back over 100 years: some originals and some copied by Tom Creedy, a founder member.
When the Society folded, its committee, chaired by Ruth Mariner, wanted to find a way of sharing some of the images with the people of Selsey, visitors, students, local historians and other researchers, as well as preserving the collection.
The Selsey Photo Archive Project was thus developed and Selsey Town Council received support from the Heritage Lottery Fund to run it.
The project has brought together volunteers from the community with members of the Manhood Wildlife & Heritage Group [a local charity], former members of the Selsey Society, Selsey Town Council and expert staff from the West Sussex Record Office, to catalogue the images and prepare them for display on this website. Once all the photos have been scanned, the collection will be transferred to the West Sussex Record Office to ensure its long-term preservation.
A team of volunteers has been painstakingly reviewing the collection and selecting those to initially display on the website. More will be added as they continue to work through the collection and others become available from other sources. This will be an ongoing process as people continue to offer their collections for inclusion in the Project, as donations or loans.
We would like to thank the following for the donation or loan of their collections:
Christian Skelton, Sue Harris, Lilly Godden, Barbara Lucas, Roland Crisp, John Webb, Richard Dyer, David Wiseman, Brian Pullenger, Joan Taylor, Chichester District Council, Anne Pearce, Ros Bonham, Joanna Green, Chris Cole, Michael Wakefield, The Family of Dapne Eleanor Restall, Mark Newbould, Kate Westbrook and Peter Morrill.