A year in life of Watlington

SIXTY pictures were entered into a competition for a 2022 calendar featuring scenes of Watlington.

The contest was organised by the Friends of Watlington Library and the 12 best images were selected, one for each month.

The calendar is now on sale at the library in High Street.

The pictures were judged by award-winning photographer Ruth Morris, an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society.

For the past three years, the Friends have asked residents to submit photos for a calendar to raise money for the library. The theme for this year’s competition was “the heart of Watlington”.

The winning pictures feature High Street, the library, St Leonard’s Church and the willow pond, among other places. The calendar was launched at a small reception at the library, attended by the winning photographers and local business owners who supported its production. Dr Anna Tilley, who chairs the Friends, said they had wanted to create something that was recognisably Watlington.

She said: “I hope that the beautiful images contained within the calendar will resonate with the people of Watlington.

“We have a wonderfully diverse collection of pictures that shows off our lovely town and encapsulates just perfectly what the heart of Watlington is.

“The production of each page was sponsored by local businesses and since we haven’t been able to host our usual fundraising talks inside the library because of the pandemic, it is really important for us to raise money in other ways.

“It’s so lovely to have people in the library again and I would like to say thanks to everyone who has contributed to the calendar. We are very excited about it.” Diana Young, whose picture of the library window was chosen to illustrate March, said: “I’ve been coming to this library since I was eight years old, it’s my favourite place in the world.

“The photos in the calendar are really Watlington this time, which is great.”  

The other contributors are Janet Lambert (January), Neil Mitchenall (February), Janice Selkirk (April), Ian Austin (May and September), Bindy McCallum (June), Nicola Schafer (July and November), Hazel Loutsis (August and October) and Kim Price (December).

The calendar, which costs £8, is also on sale at Watlington Fine Wines at Watcombe Manor Farm while pictures from the previous calendars are on sale at the library.