LIFE in a remote Herefordshire valley in the 1920s will be shown in Hereford for the first time.

An exhibition of Richard Jenkins’ work is on display this week showing what life was really like back then.

Born in 1890 in the parish of Newton, Richard Jenkins was a bright, curious young man who longed to study to be an engineer, to be part of the technological revolution that was going on in the outside world. 

But as the only son of a farmer, he had to stay on the farm. 

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He consoled himself by learning to take and develop photographs, and produced a collection of telling images, showing his friends and neighbours at every stage in their lives, paying tribute to their toughness and their skills.

The faces in the photographs show them as they truly were a hundred years ago. 

Nearly a thousand of Jenkins’ glass plate negatives survived and are now in the safe keeping of the Herefordshire Archive and Records Centre.

A selection was published in 2020 in Hilary Engel’s book, Golden Valley Faces.

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Jenkins is only now being recognised as an exceptional photographer: one of Herefordshire’s unsung heroes. 

The exhibition will run at All Saints Church, Hereford, from April 25 until July 2 and opening hours are Monday to Saturday between 8am and 4pm.