The documenting of the work of Stanley Phillips started in September 2008. By October the first edition of Lluniau Gan Stanley Phillips was released along with a DVD containing archive film of St. Clears circa 1920.

A website for Stanley’s work was also established www.stanleyphillipsphotography.co.uk The Premiere showing of the film was held at the Town Hall, St Clears almost 100 years after Stanley Phillips showed his films there. A large number of people from the community attended during the day and in the evening. It was an emotional day with people identifying generations of their family in film from the turn of the 19th Century.

A public showing of the film was held at Ysgol Griffith Jones In November 2008 at which 200 people attended on a dark, wet Sunday evening. More photographs and memorabilia came to light in January 2009. We established a headquarters for the project at the Stella’s home and proceeded to catalogue Stanley’s work. The BBC Wales Today presenter Sian Lloyd came to film our progress on 25th February 2009. Sian interviewed Alan, Stella, Gerwyn, Mary and Rose.

The second edition of the book Lluniau Gan Stanley Phillips was published in November 2008. The Carmarthen Journal came to film our progress on 17th March 2009. We continued to renovate the Town Hall in preparation for the exhibition of Stanley’s work. On April 1st we gave a presentation to Laughane W.I. at the Laugharne Memorial Hall. On April 5th we travelled to Cardiff to interview 93ear-old Frank Willey the son of the stationmaster at St. Clears in the 1930’s.

On Monday 13th April we began hanging the framed pictures with the help of Ian James of Laugharne. The first edition of the essay by Jim Phillips was published on April 15th, 2009 The private view of the exhibition opened in a packed Town Hall on April 17 th. The gallery opened to the public on April 18th 2009. Visitors have come from all over the world. Our website has been viewed by people from almost every country in the world. We have linked the site to Americymru one of the largest Welsh ex pat community in America.

Stella received a community award in recognition of preserving her father’s work for the community. The town mayor Tom Brown presented the award in April 2009. On the 29th of April BBC Wales today presenter Sian Lloyd returned to do a live broadcast from the gallery and interviewed Stella, Alan and Frank. Demand led to a second edition of the essay being published. Whitland School and Ysgol Griffith Jones visited the exhibition and were given a talk on the history of St. Clears by Stella Griffiths. Talks were also given to St Clears W.I. Llanwinio W.I. St. Clears Young Farmers, Llangynin

over 60’s, St Clears Senior Citizen club, Newquay Sisterhood and St. Clears and Laugharne Probus. Public demand has led to the publication of another book and the diaries of Stanley Phillips.

The exhibition moved to the Blue Boar restaurant in St. Clears. Unfortunately the restaurant closed and we are now without a home for the images, films and storage area for the collection of images.

We have looked at other options including using existing facilities such as the craft centre. We approached the craft centre with a view to exhibiting the images and were told that they were not saleable and therefore they would be unable to display them. I have also approached the craft centre for exhibiting my own work and was told it was not possible. I approached the craft centre to ask for a studio space. I was told that the room I was interested in was being used for storage space. In the meantime we have to pay for space to organise further events for the community. I now organise all the events and training days at Llety Cynin, which is quite some distance out of the town. Unless you have transport you cannot access these events.

We have been given the complete photographic works of another three Carmarthenshire photographers. There are many thousands of images and some reels of film, which require recording and preserving. We have attracted the interest of the National Archives of Wales who already had some of Stanley’s work. They are now archiving Stanley’s website. We hope to work in partnership with Aberystwyth as well as the Carmarthenshire County archives. Our main aim is to establish a permanent home for this work where we can continue to give talks to members of the public. The space would also act as a meeting place for a number of groups and organisations in St. Clears. We will be offering training on computers and dedicated software for scanning and preserving photographs. We will also be recording interviews with a cross section of the community, which will be archived and available for future generations. We have had a number of enquiries from people seeking their family history. We have paper records of the gravestones in St Mary’s church and intend to place these on electronic format and make them available to the public. All of the images will also be investigated for family names and published as a list on the Internet. We envisage a certain amount of revenue being generated from providing people with information about their family tree. We will also continue to sell books, essays, DVD’s and photographs.

The gallery, office space and retail area will generate badly needed local employment. We plan to install a disabled toilet on the ground floor with a disabled stair lift to the first floor. The retail area will offer start up space for small business. We would like to attract business, which offer local produce such as food, arts and crafts. High Street in St. Clears has always had a shop however the last shop has recently closed. There is a large community, which lives in “Lower St. Clears” many of whom are elderly. Travelling to and from the town is problematic as there is only a skeleton bus service. Walking the road between the two parts of St. Clears is also problematic as the pavements are narrow and in poor condition. Lower St. Clears has suffered from a lack of investment for a number of years whilst St. Clears has been provided with huge grants for development.

In conclusion we argue, “Lower St. Clears will continue to suffer and deteriorate unless some investment is placed in this part of the community. A number of community activities take place on the sports field in Lower St Clears. There is no service available for anyone attending these events. The river path now links both sides of town and it has attracted local and visitors to Lower St. Clears. There are no facilities for them when they reach this side of the town. The office space, gallery and retail area will provide much needed services and facilities for the community in a neglected area of the town. What we are offering is a space where people of all ages can access a space for events and training, which feeds into the main exhibition and retail space. A community space equipped with disabled facilities. A tourism information point and heritage facility for preserving and displaying the history of St. Clears. The project is sustainable through funds from the letting of the retail space, funds from the gallery and office space and funds from letting the space to organisations wishing to hold events there.

In 2012 we had visitors from Autralia, New Zealand, America, Iran, France, Denmark and Ireland to name a few. We also received numerous requests for information on family history. Many visitors had come to St. Clears specifically to view the archives and trace their family tree. Unfortunately the Mezzanine was subject to an anonymous complaint to the planning department. Subsequent complaints have also alleged irregularities but they are nothing but malicious lies. We have not received any help or funding from local government or any other funding bodies and the work continues to be self funded and through voluntary work. We were bitterly disappointed to be the victims of such malicious and vindictive reporting yet again.

The work of W D Evans remains relatively untouched but there is a wonderful collection of images spanning from the 1950’ up until the 1980’s covering the whole of Carmarthenshire. We have produced a range of books, prints and DVD’s featuring the photographs and storis from local people. There is still so much work left to do on this extraordinary collection of film, photographs and documents. We hope to see you at the mezzanine soon.