THE past is a different country, they do things differently there, and that includes taking pictures.

But oh what pictures!

Photographers from previous generations had the odds stacked against them greatly compared with the convenience and ease that technology affords modern snappers.

Those lensmen and women of old may not have bottled lightning or captured moonbeams, but thanks to their diligence and skill, they were responsible for an even higher form of magic - bringing the past to life for future generations

So without further ado. Here's some more snapshots from the past.

If you've got any old photos you'd like to see featured, then visit our Nevill Street office or, if it's easier, pop them in an email and send them to [email protected]

Abergavenny Market
Check out these bruisers! Mess with the bull and you get the horns. You wouldn’t want to walk uncapped, without a pipe or a sound knowledge of agricultural practices amongst these lads. They’d have your guts for garters. It isn’t no rodeo though and those boys aren’t no cowboys, they were the cream of the crop of Abergavenny’s farming community. We say were, because the picture was taken in 1929 during the Abergavenny Xmas Fat Stock Show and Sale. Superstores weren’t a thing back then, nor were governments who seemed hell-bent on making a farmer’s job as difficult as possible. But that’s progress, it’s a comfortable disease, as E.E. Cummings would say. (Abergavenny Chronicle )
A march of Scouts.
Once upon a time when children read books, there was a popular character created by Richmal Crompton called William Brown. In a series of 38 books, readers could follow the adventures of the unruly scamp and his gang of outlaws as they rebel against the absurdity of adulthood. Pictured here, marching past the old Abergavenny Chronicle offices in Frogmore Street is a Just William tribute parade from the 1950s. And if you believe that then you’re a ripe turkey! (Abergavenny Chronicle )
Abergavenny Carnival in the 1950s
Check out these dashing dandies. You can almost smell the leather, taste the brylcreem, and hear the roar of their iron horses. Yes indeed ladies and gentlemen it's Abergavenny’s very own Marlon Brando Appreciation Society. Only joking, the ‘wild ones’ featured in this pic from the archives are none other than assorted members of the Abergavenny Auto Club who decided to float their boat at the town’s 1955 Carnival. Back in the day, the Carnival was a mighty big thing and these likely lads were keen to make a splash in an effortlessly cool Steve McQueen type of way. (Abergavenny Chronicle )
Abergavenny' slum clearances
In 1957 civic planners gave the green light to wholesale slum clearances which systematically destroyed much of the old part of Abergavenny and changed it beyond recognition. Suffice to say, the unique character of the area had been somewhat diminished. Here's a shot of the empty space in St John's Square that lay somewhere in that murky point between destruction and creation! (Abergavenny Chronicle )
An old butchers in Abergavenny
Here’s some food for thought, but it’s probably best to look away now if you adhere to a vegan lifestyle. It’s Eastman’s butchers back in the day. And the day we’re taking is sometime in the early 20th Century. The venue is 24 Frogmore Street. The past is often a bloody and brutal business and it doesn’t get any bloodier than these boys. Take a butcher's at these no-nonsense meat and cleaver men. Is that claret on their otherwise pristine white aprons? (Abergavenny Chronicle )