Category: Events

Save Our Shirley Library – Meeting Friday 24 May 2024

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Shirley Library is under threat of closure from Croydon Council.

We need to support this valuable social and community asset and preserve an iconic art deco building.

The library is Shirley’s only social hub available free to all, regardless of age or background.

Users of the library include young people doing Duke of Edinburgh awards, toddlers learning to read, children on holiday doing the Reading Challenge, older people from one of the many retirement homes, young people doing their homework on the computers. It provides:

  • access via the Libraries Consortium to 350 branches, 23 local authorities and access to over 7 million books.
  • support for people preparing for their driving test or citizenship test and for exams in general.
  • computer courses and support with IT problems for many who cannot afford to have a computer at home and offers a space for study and reflection.
  • children’s craft sessions and adult events, such as taster courses on deaf language.
  • advice on many of the social issues that affect people, such as homelessness, domestic violence, unemployment.

There will be a meeting at Shirley Library on Friday 24th May at 1.00pm to discuss our next actions, everyone is welcome.

We need to act now by spreading the word to friends and family.

A group of concerned residents have branded themselves Friends of Shirley Library and have started a movement to save our library.

There is a petition which can be signed in Shirley Library or online https://chng.it/Ww96qMBX6y

If you want to make contact with the Friends of Shirley Library, please email your name, email address, and telephone number to spra.comms@email.com. By so doing, you agree to your details being passed to others similarly interested.

You can also help by emailing our local councillors –

Jason.Cummings@croydon.org.uk

Scott.Roche@croydon.org.uk

Shirley Jumble Trail – Saturday 25 May 2024

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Sign up to be a Seller!

It’s the return of our jumble trail after we saw 80+ sellers at our last trail. It’s a fuss-free way to have a spring clean and help a charity. Organised by locals for everyone.

This year, there will be a £5 entry fee which goes to London charity Caysh, supporting young people age 16-25 in need of homes since 1981.

Where

We’ve made the trail stops closer together this year to make it easier to navigate and increase footfall. If your sale is within this zone, you can participate.

Why?

A jumble trail is a fantastic way to bring a community together whilst helping the environment by finding new homes for old things.
How to get involved:

Step 1. Join the Facebook group for all event info, and to promote your own sale in your front yard/garden or team up with a neighbour!

Step 2. Sign up as a seller using this form, and tell us what you’ll be selling on the day

Step 3. Spread the word! You can share our posts from the Facebook group, and we will provide you with posters for you to print and put up near your sale address.

Croydon Camera Club – Wratten Lecture 2024 ‘A Photographic Journey with Wildlife’

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https://www.croydoncameraclub.org.uk/wratten/

A Short History

The Wratten Company
The Wratten and Wainwright Company was formed in 1877 by Frederick Wratten and Henry Wainwright, barely 40 years after the birth of photography. The company opened a factory in Croydon in 1890 to manufacture and sell photographic supplies. Wratten had invented a new ‘dry’ plate method of producing photographs that was 15 times quicker than the old ‘wet’ plate method.

In 1906, Wratten, incorporated the company with his son and Kenneth Mees as owners.The company continued to innovate, eventually producing the world famous Wratten filters, which are still produced today by Kodak. The company was eventually taken over by Kodak in 1912 with Mees moving to New York to found Eastman Kodak Laboratories. Both Wratten and Mees had a long association with Croydon Camera Club.

The Wratten Lecture
The Wratten Lecture was instigated to commemorate Croydon and Croydon Camera Club’s long and illustrious association with the photographic industry and the contribution they made to the history of photography.

First held in the 1980s, The Wratten Lecture is given approximately every 2 years attracting well known photographers and commentators covering all aspects of photography.

Meeting details
“Croydon Camera Club will be holding its flagship event, The Wratten Lecture, on Wednesday 17th April at Shirley Methodist Church.

The lecture celebrates the Club’s 135 year history and recognises the connection that the club had with the world famous Wratten filter company. The filters are still available today through Kodak, another firm with close ties to Croydon.”