Muriel Elms Collection

The Muriel Elms Collection

THE PRESTON & OLD PATCHAM SOCIETY is proud to be able to present The Muriel Elms Collection, a very special set of photographs, slides and postcards that show old Patcham from days gone by.

We are lucky to have been been given the opportunity to digitise this collection of more than 100 images. We are currently showing a total of 30 images here in the site. Muriel Elms is giving the collection to the Brighton & Hove Archaeological Society. We are very grateful for the loan of the material for display purposes in our site.

Muriel Elms built up this collection over a lifetime and used the slides to illustrate her talks on Patcham to local groups. The Collection is also well-known to local historians.

Some of the earliest photos in the collection show Patcham as a rural, agricultural, downland village, with its main features: the church, the farm, the dovecot and the mill. With the decline in farming and the growth of Brighton, more and more of the population were employed in the town and in market gardening. The changes in the 1920s were dramatic as Patcham became a suburb of Brighton.

We genuinely feel privileged to be given this collection on loan. We hope that you enjoy browsing these local scenes from a world now long gone. We welcome any comments that you might like to offer about the images on display.

THE MURIEL ELMS COLLECTION : 30 IMAGES