Hewitt's History Files

A professional photographer who worked in the Petworth area of West Sussex from the 1920s until his death in 1978, Garland went way beyond his everyday work photographing weddings and family portraits.

His keen interest was country life and crafts. And the collection of 60,000 negatives, which he bequeathed on his death to the West Sussex Record Office, offers an unrivalled glimpse at all the activities of the agricultural year.

Images in the collection record each stage in processes such as hoop-shaving, charcoal-burning, hurdle and cider-making and other rural crafts which have now almost disappeared.

Inevitably, his collection also allows us to look back at Christmases past with its evocations of snowy scenes '“ some of which are reproduced here.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette December 24