Arthur W. Hill Photographic Collection

Copies, [1880s]-[1970s], of photographs ([1840s]-[20th century]), topographical postcards, [1900s], and original photographs, [1960s]-[1970s], collected by Arthur W. Hill, relating to the Swansea area and depicting trams; shops and businesses; squares; Sketty; roads and lanes; castles; inns, public houses and hotels; churches, chapels and abbeys; streets and terraces; views, sketches, photos and plans; writings; docks, canals, piers, harbours and rivers; animals; buildings; people; theatres and cinemas; bays, rocks and caves, places; Mumbles; vehicles; bays, beaches and villages; bridges and arches; Blackpill; trains, stations and engines; fields, parks and gardens; ships; schools; works; Swansea Market; hills; maps and aerial photographs; photographs of various subjects.

Arthur William Hill (1907-1988) was an amateur photographer and collector of photographs of his native Swansea, Glamorgan. He built up a collection of around 1700 pictures, mostly comprising copies of earlier photographs. These range from the works of pioneer photographers of Swansea in the 1840s and 1850s, such as Calvert Richard Jones, through those of James Andrews in the 1870s and 1880s, to Hill's own photographs from the 1960s and 1970s. He also collected topographical postcards. The wide range of subjects amongst the copy photographs includes some of the earliest aerial views of the centre of Swansea and the docks, as well as Singleton Abbey, Oystermouth Castle, Mumbles and the Gower Bays. Many photographs show the destruction wreaked on Swansea during the Three Nights Blitz of February 1941. In the 1960s and 1970s Hill himself took many photographs of Swansea buildings and streets prior to demolition and redevelopment.

Arranged by subject. Original order maintained.

No restrictions

It is the policy of the West Glamorgan Archive Service to withhold the names of depositors.

Compiled by Rhys Jones for the ANW project. The following sources were used in the compilation of this description: West Glamorgan Archive Service, Catalogue of the Arthur Hill Photograph Collection; Collis, Kim, West Glamorgan Archive Service - A Guide to the Collections (West Glamorgan Archive Service, 1998).

Hard copies of the catalogue are available at West Glamorgan Archive Service.

Usual copyright regulations apply.

All records have been retained

Accruals are not expected