BRISTOL.- Photographs from Martin Parr’s lesser-known series documenting the Somerset village of Chew Stoke are being exhibited for the first time in 30-years. The exhibition includes over 200 previously unpublished archive prints and contact sheets providing a rare insight to Parr’s working and editing practice.

In 1992 Parr spent a year photographing the Somerset village of Chew Stoke for a commission from The Telegraph Magazine and during this time he used 329 rolls of film. The magazine featured the project over 16 pages in 1993 and an exhibition was held at the village hall. Earlier this year, a new edit was published in the book A Year in the Life of Chew Stoke by RRB Photobooks. However, a vast majority of the photographs remain unpublished and this exhibition draws upon the extensive archive prints and contact sheets made during a golden era of magazine commissioning to show the story behind the story.

Throughout 1992, Parr would visit Chew Stoke frequently from his nearby home in Bristol, often accompanied by journalist Robert Chesshyre. Chew Stoke had been selected due to both its proximity to Bristol and because it had a shop, village hall, pub, post-office, church and schools—the key establishments around which village life rotate. Over time, Parr and Chesshyre established relationships with villagers allowing them invitations to attend and photograph cricket matches, weddings, Christmas plays and community events. In addition to the gatherings, Parr captured the details and rhythms of village life—the milk deliveries, school drop-offs, gardening, keep fit classes, cups of tea, pints in the pub, jars of home-made lemon curd and jumble sales. At the time, tensions were becoming apparent in the village due to an influx of newcomers commuting to Bristol, and high house-prices forcing some villagers out. Collectively, the images provide an insight to both the individuals and delicate social structures of the village.

‘The village has a cherished place in most English hearts. Research shows that seven out of ten Britons would live in the country if they could. We carry a warm mental picture: timeless, unspoilt, sunlit; roses at the cottage door; cricket on the green; a stream flowing through frosted fields; lingering evenings in a village pub; carols in a country church.

There is an alternative image: of young people forced to leave because scarce housing has been taken by commuters and the retired; of failed village shops and non-existent buses; of isolation and the wagging of gossips’ tongues…. Which of these notions does the modern village match? Between Chew Stoke and Bristol rises Dundry Hill, over 600ft high and as total a barrier between town and country as there can be in Britain. Throughout 1992, photographer Martin Parr and I crossed that frontier regularly. This is our report from the other side.’ --Robert Chesshyre

‘My bigger project is documenting life in the UK in my 50 year period of being a photographer, particularly how people go about their leisure pursuits. Chew Stoke fits into that. To look at what’s going on in one village and photograph it quite carefully and intensely. Such an important part of this project is its associated archive—which is held the Martin Parr Foundation as part of my legacy. When founding this centre for British photography part of its aim was to preserve and display important archive materials from a variety of photographers as this is often just as interesting, sometimes more so, than the widely published work.’     --Martin Parr