Teasdale Collection

Photographs, a collection of approximately 5, 565 film negatives, 35mm - 3 1/2 x 2 1/2 ins including approximately 2, 500 cellulose nitrate film negatives and 315 glass negatives, 3 1/2 x 2 1/2 ins. Also 2, 250 prints, most 5 1/2 x 3 1/2 ins - 8 1/2 x 6 1/2 ins including Railway Photographic Society criticism sheets, 1 8.40 35mm colour slides and 77 lantern slides. Featuring British Railways Western, Eastern, Southern and London Midland Regions. Also light and industrial railways, shipping, railway-related inn signs and French and Irish railways. c 1949 - 1980. Photographer: Sidney Teasdale. Includes 1 box of archive papers (ALS3/42/E/6).

Sidney Teasdale was born in Rugby in 1912, but was educated in Dover, where he served an apprenticeship as an electrical engineer. He began his career with the North Eastern Electricity Supply Company in County Durham and remained in the electricity industry throughout his working life.

He took his earliest railway photographs, of main line and industrial views in the north of England, in about 1950. Many of Teasdale's photographs were published in the railway press and although in 1960 he moved to London he maintained his links with the north-east. In later life, ill health curtailed his photographic expeditions, but he was still able to explore his new-found interest in railway inn signs. Teasdale was a member of the Railway Photographic Society, and ran its Northern Circle for some years. There are examples of his exhibition prints, complete with critical comments by other members of the Society, in the collection. He was also a member of the Stephenson Locomotive Society, and the North Eastern Railway Association.