The next meeting of Meifod History Group

Photographs from the Old Bell Museum collection

David Thomas

Thursday 10 th April, Meifod Village Hall, at 7.30pm

A Window on the Past

The Old Bell Museum in Montgomery has displays illustrating the social and civic

history of the town from its foundation in the thirteenth century to the present day. It

is housed in a sixteenth century building that has, in its past, been a butcher’s shop,

a pub and a temperance hotel, as well as a private house. The building was

converted into a museum in 1981 by the Montgomery Civic Society, and the museum

is run by a dedicated team of volunteers.

As well as the displays, the Museum has an extensive archive, including collections of

photographs from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, taken in and around Montgomery.

The photographers were usually local, but some images from travelling professional

photographers also survive. 

David Thomas, who has worked as an archaeologist in Wales for over thirty years, and is

currently the National Trust’s Archaeologist for South Wales, has been the volunteer curator

of the Old Bell since 2021.

His talk to Meifod History Group on 10 th April will be based on the Old Bell’s photographic

collection. David will concentrate particularly on pictures taken by three keen amateur

photographers who took advantage of new photographic techniques at the turn of the

century to document the people, industries and social life of the town in the late nineteenth

and early twentieth centuries.

The event is free to members of Meifod Local History Group, and costs £4 for non-

members.