We are so delighted that the Parish Council and Camera Club have led this ambitious project to digitise Garth’s photographic collection to make it available to all through this wonderful website, following on from the Camera Club’s successful exhibition of the collection in May and October 2025 at the Village Hall.

Garth Collard MBE (1939-2020), arrived in Linton with his family in 1978, serving as deputy head of the Village College until 2000.  He was a passionate historian and soon developed a strong interest in the history of Linton, founding the Linton and District Historical Society in 1984.
He gave frequent lectures to the Society, which he chaired, and wrote numerous articles and pamphlets about local history as well as leading guided walks around the village’s many historic buildings.  Alongside this, he studiously assembled this photographic collection.

He pursued a thorough and systematic study of Linton’s history, paying particular attention to the historical record. He obtained a Schoolmaster Fellowship at Pembroke College, Cambridge (in 1986), which enabled him to study information relevant to Linton in detail as Pembroke had, and still has, major land holdings in the area.

In 2006, he edited (with Norman Dann) Linton in Pictures: A Photographic History, to coincide with the establishment of the Linton Trail by the Parish Council.   His endeavours over 30 years were recognised by the award of an MBE by the late Queen in 2008 for services to local history, which he was hugely proud of.

Garth was deeply passionate about Linton, Lintonians and the area’s rich history, and he loved the photographic collection.  We hope that that you enjoy it, whether for fun, curiosity, scholarship or business, and that in a small way, it contributes to the legacy of a wonderful man, who loved nothing more than to share his knowledge and passion for history, across the generations.

Our thanks to all of the volunteers in Linton for their dedication and hard work in delivering this superb project.  

Garth would have been so pleased to have seen the collection becoming truly accessible in this way.

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The Collard Family
November 2025
 

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