Originally from Manchester, I came to Bristol in 2016 after living in Stafford, London and Gloucestershire.

I started out training as an electronic engineer but quickly stepped sideways into product management, marketing and sales. During the late 1970s and 80s I worked in factory automation and process control, getting involved in the early days of programmable control systems, networking and man/machine interface. I found myself in a wide range of industries from food production to sewage treatment, car manufacturing to papermaking.

In the 1990s I moved into laser systems, primarily used in the packaging and textile printing sectors. (Think lasers the size of small cars, not desktop printers!) I got involved in the start of electronic pre-press technologies: connecting Apple Mac computers to machines which produced printing plates without film or photographic processes.

1999 saw me make a major career change when I purchased two small printing businesses in Stroud, Gloucestershire. These I merged to form StroudPrint and set out to exploit the newer digital printing technologies to produce short-run print with quick turnaround. We produced everything from flyers to books, newsletters to calendars and were always ready to take on unusual projects. The business was sold in 2022 when I retired.

My parallel interests in industrial history and photography started while at school in the late 1960s. In the 1970s this largely focused on canal restoration projects, both as a volunteer working on site and also involved in publicising the restoration campaigns. After an intense few years leading up to the reopening of the Cheshire Ring of canals, I was involved in the early days of the campaign to reopen the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. After moving to London, I became Press Officer for Waterway Recovery Group, the national coordinating body for volunteers on the inland waterways.

Work, property ownership and life generally intervened and although I stopped direct involvement in canal restoration, I maintained a number of waterways links.