Priaulx seeks photos of the area Renoir painted
THE Priaulx Library wants to see ‘Your Moulin Huet’ and has launched an appeal for islanders to send in their photos of the area.
Many could be used in a community slideshow at the library to run alongside the major exhibition of Renoir’s painting of the bay taking place next door at the Guernsey Museum.
‘We are looking for photos from 1840 to 2000,’ said website editor Dinah Bott.
‘Especially from the post-war period up to 2000 which we are lacking.’
The library already has a collection of 20,000 images of Guernsey, with many showing Moulin Huet. The earliest photos of the area date back to the 1860s, 20 years before Renoir painted there.
‘They are really helpful for historical research, but a lot of them do lack dates and details about who is in them.’
‘We want to build a memory bank, a rich reservoir of memories, to get an idea of Moulin Huet through the ages. And inspire people to remember their own pasts,’ said Mrs Bott.
Islanders are asked to email a scanned image to the library, but for those without the tech or the know-how there is another option.
‘If people can’t scan a photo, please pop into the library and we can scan them for you,’ she added.
As well as the image, the library wants to know an approximate date it was taken, who’s in it and any other memories about it that participants are happy to share.
The appeal started last week, and the library has already started to receive photos from across the years.
‘We can’t wait to see more,’ she said. ‘It’s going to be really interesting to follow Moulin Huet and the water lanes through the ages. In many ways there probably isn’t a lot of difference from what Renoir painted in the 1880s. People enjoying themselves on the beautiful beach and swimming between the rocks.’
n Photos can be emailed to info@priaulxlibrary.gg and more information can be found at www. priaulxlibrary.co.uk/events
