GALLERY: Bridgnorth photographer delves into archives to create bespoke town calendars across the region

Mark Writtle, founder of Writtle Photographic, has captured some stunning pictures of popular attractions, as well as some lesser-known gems in Bridgnorth, Ludlow, Ironbridge and Bewdley.

With a large volume of his usual work with businesses in the area, including Severn Valley Railway, coming to a halt due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 50-year-old used his additional spare time to take a look back over his last 10 to 15 years of work.

Mark, who started photographing car rallies as a hobby before launching his own business in 1999, said the pictures in his latest calendars range from some taken more than a decade ago, to ones captured in the last 12 months.

"Having started photography as a hobby, focusing on car rallying, the local stuff came about 10 to 15 years ago" he said.

"My enthusiasm and passion for doing that grew the more I did it and I eventually started doing a lot of work for Severn Valley Railway.

"We also started making calendars for Ironbridge, Bridgnorth, Bewdley and Ludlow. We've got some incredible historical places and buildings right on our doorstep which probably need a bit more promotion than they get."

Mark, of Stanley Lane, has produced all sorts of memorabilia for companies across the UK using his pictures, but said producing calendars had been something he longed to revisit.

He said: "We've previously made a lot of calendars for rally customers over the last 20 years, so when I started working with local shops about 10 years ago, part of that was making calendars for them.

"We stopped this about five or six years ago, but with this lockdown I decided to try and recreate it and dig deep into the archives to put some together for 2021."

He added: "I started photography as an amateur shortly after I left school in the late 80s – that was based around a hobby of going car rallying in those days.

"That led me to working full time as a photographer and owning my own business in 1999. I've been covering national rallies across the UK for 30 years and had a contract with Motor Sport News up until 2018.

"As the rally work died down, I started looking at heritage railways and started working with Severn Valley Railway before expanding across the country.

"With the railway being closed and a lot of shops I work with also shutting, work has been a struggle recently.

"We've got work done and paid for waiting to be shipped out to shops which have closed down, so that's money tied up.

"But the free time in lockdown has given me the opportunity to work on some alternative projects such as this one."

The calendars, which come in a range of sizes, can be viewed under 2021 location calendars at writtlephotographic.co.uk