What is Wood's Library?

Mostly photographs of buses taken by me between 1964 and the present day. The largest number are from the 1970s.

Many are from my original home town, Teesside, but there are plenty of others from around Britain, also some from Switzerland and Portugal.

The sets are sorted by place, with some other categories such as 'Buses & People', 'Transporter Bridge Middlesbrough', and 'Quirkington' which is transport and other oddities.

Those before 1971 were taken on 'snapper' cameras (they have 'en' prefix - 'early negative' numbers).

Those between 1971 and 2002 were taken on 35mm SLR cameras ('n' prefix).

Those between 2002 and now are digital.

The 35mm negatives are scanned on a 'Reflecta 7200 Professional' high resolution film scanner, so that any quality in the original is not lost, as would be the case with mass-market scanners. (For display on Flickr the file sizes have been reduced).

The photos are copyright, so please ask permission to use them. I'll usually say yes for non-commercial use with acknowledgement to A.R.Wood or Wood's Library.

What was Wood's Library?

My paternal great grandfather was a Londoner who was appointed to open the branch of W H Smith on the station at Stockton-on-Tees in the 19th century.He later opened his own shop selling books, stationery and toys at the top of Stockton High Street, which became known as 'Wood's Corner'. My grandfather took over this business after World War One, and in the mid-1930s sold it and bought a new shop att 111 Lanehouse Road in nearby Thornaby, selling similar merchandise and running a lending library. He sold the shop on retirement in the early 1950s. The photograph shows Wood's Library around 1948.

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