Brief History of the Club
In 1924 - 1925 a Sevenoaks and District Photographic Society met on the first and third Mondays in the month at The Cornwall Hall in Sevenoaks. The annual subscription was 7/6d (equivalent to 37.5p for those of you too young to remember pre-decimal currency!), with reduced rates for juniors. An entry with this information appears in the 1924 edition of a book called 'Photograms of the Year'. By the 1931 edition there was no entry for the Society. If anyone knows more about this group, we'd be delighted to hear from you.
The story of the current Club begins in November 1952, when discussions were held by local enthusiasts about starting a photographic group in Sevenoaks. The first formal meeting was held in January 1953.
In our first decade the evidence is that we were a thriving Club, with some highly regarded members, and we had our successes within the Kent County Photographic Association print competitions. The late 1960s and early 1970s saw the membership decline significantly, but we overcame that temporary difficulty and have built a thriving membership once again.
Membership numbers have fluctuated over the last 25 years, but we now have about 55 members, with a high proportion coming along regularly to our meetings. Our visiting judges and speakers almost inevitably comment on the friendly nature of the Club.
We try to be active in the KCPA, and have hosted their annual slide competition - the Handley Shield - twice, and to celebrate our own 50th anniversary we hosted the equivalent for prints in 2003 - the Ross Cup. And Sevenoaks members have been a recent President and an Hon Treasurer of the KCPA.
