Dave Headey

I have lived in Faringdon for nearly a quarter of a century and have seen quite a few changes in that time, though fortunately not as many as in some Oxforshire market towns. When we came to live here in 1976 the A420 ran straight past our bedroom window; three years later we had the luxury of staying asleep beyond 5 a.m. to be woken by birds singing. Less welcome changes have been a considerable reduction in the number of shops and pubs (yes, I remember the Baker's Arms on Ferndale Street and Liddiard's the grocers where the Tourist Information is now).

Unlike a lot of small towns, Faringdon has always been a welcoming sort of place to newcomers like ourselves. The photo project enabled me to meet in their own homes a lot of people I knew only as faces around the town, and with very few exceptions everyone I called on showed great interest, even enthusiasm, even if they didn't consider themselves to be photogenic enough to be recorded for posterity along with the bricks and mortar!