A Day in the Life of Newtown 1

These photographs and captions are by David Pugh recording life in the Montgomeryshire town of Newtown on 24th September 2002.

I decided that I would not try to record a normal day in my life. I spend most of my time researching and writing on local history. Me sitting at my computer would not make much of a picture sequence. Instead I would record, as best I could, a day in the life of the town. As, since 1279, Tuesday has been market day in Newtown I concentrated on the street market, with occasional forays elsewhere. In September there is enough light for photography from about 7am to 7pm so I chose to cover those 12 hours.

The pictures were taken in 7 separate forays into the town from our house, with short returns home for rest.

I have not attempted to describe the content of each picture as I have no idea what a future historian might be looking for and I would have needed an amanuensis to take notes. Instead I have made a brief commentary to put each picture in its context. Where I knew the names of people I have included them.

David Pugh

7am on a misty morning on the Long Bridge. A paperboy sets out on his round.	Mist on the river too. Overnight some fool has thrown blue bags of rubbish into the water.
In Broad Street the street sweeper is at work on his machine	The sweeping continues
A painter goes to the Stars shop for a paper	At Iceland the trolley pen is pulled out
Here are the bin men	In the Market hall breakfast starts early. So that's where Geoff Pryce was going.