Club History ​

Thornbury Camera Club was formed in October 1969 and met weekly at the Chantry as a member group of the Thornbury and District Community Association (TDCA). The Club's name at that time was TDCA Photographic Group but by 1973 it was known as the Thornbury Camera Club.

Thornbury Camera Club continued to thrive at the Chantry where it established a permanent darkroom and ran instructive courses for beginners and also showed exhibitions to the public as part of the Thornbury Arts Festival.

In May 1983 the Club went its own way and left the TDCA, meeting weekly at the premises of the Thornbury Rugby Club. The constitution remained similar as did the format of events, which continues to this day.

We continued to meet weekly at the Rugby Club before transferring to a more central location at the Swan Hotel in Thornbury High Street. Life at the Swan was brief and we moved to the Bakery Annexe in January 1991, and thence to Turnberries in January 2015.

The early days of the Club favoured black and white photography but saw an increase in colour workers mainly showing transparencies. In about 2002 black and white (darkroom) printing virtually ceased and the huge rise in the popularity of digital imaging replaced transparencies.