Geoff Hastings (14 January 1926 – 25 September 2005), was an English photographer who worked in Wisbech in the 1950s when the town was being redeveloped.
He worked for the Air Inspectorate Department in nearby March, auditing aircraft parts during the Second World War.
The filling in of the Wisbech Canal in the 1960s, removal of bridges and sluice and construction of the dual carriageway and associated road junctions changed the town irreversibly.
Cycling around the town and nearby villages with a 35mm camera, he captured images of properties destined for future demolition.
[5] A picture of the Richard Young (MP) memorial drawn by Hastings accompanied a letter by Roger Powell in the Cambridgeshire Times in 2012.
[8] In October and again in November 2013, an exhibition of Hastings photographs accompanied a talk by William P Smith on the Wisbech Canal in the Tower Ballroom.
[12] Since Hasting's death, other images continue to be used in books on the local history of the town, canal and nearby villages,[13][14] The negatives of the films were digitised by Andy Ketley so that the collection could be made secure and available to the public.
Full of fascinating information, they’re nostalgic for those who have lived here many years and a useful lesson in local history for those new to the area, or too young to remember black and white photos!