Audrey Groom and Deanna Groom

Our family has a passion for local history which can be traced back to my mother Audrey's interest in old churches and my father's passion for photography. Our early photograph albums are full of pictures of beautiful Anglo Saxon and Norman churches, with my sister and I often photographed inside or outside exploring amongst the gravestones. Slipped amongst the pages of one of these albums is small thin booklet called 'What to look for in an old Church' by J Hope Unwin, dating to 1949. This was Audrey's handy pocket guide to identifying different types of windows and features such as sanctuary door knockers, Mason's marks and parish chests. Sunday drives to explore country houses, picturesque villages or the seaside were regular occurrences, with Audrey later using these experiences to write short stories and travel articles for magazines such as The Lady. Since moving to Wales, our explorations have continued with the aid of a small electric scooter and, latterly, an electric wheelchair for Audrey. In the summer of 2014, we came across the resources on the People's Collection Wales, which included one of the early borough guides for our town - Machynlleth. The idea was born for a local history project which would involve taking pictures of the landmarks referred to in early visitor guides and highlighting the easiest route for other wheelchair and mobility scooter users to see them. Hence the name Photoscoot, a bringing together and shortening of the words 'photo shoot' and 'scooter'. The rest is history, as they say, combined with a continuing love for exploring and photographing the heritage of Wales.