The Harry Thomas Prestatyn Archives
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My interest, passion and attachment for local history and the collecting of old picture postcards views of my hometown of Prestatyn, and surrounding villages.
Almost forty years on from discovering that handful of Prestatyn postcards at Chester i have subsequently made it a regular event by visiting the postcard
fairs that are held throughout England and Wales in search of those elusive old local postcards to add to my growing collection, and it always gives me an
intoxicating "buzz" whenever i find an old postcard that is not in my collection, and not having seen before.it is a form of treasure hunting that is both embracing and throughly enjoyable, and rewarding.
Utilizing the old postcards from my collection i have up to this present time (2008) written twelve local history books, including a local best sellar of ghost stories "Rhyl, Prestatyn and District a Haunted Tour".Unfortunateley most of these books are today out of print, but can be taken out on loan or read in the reference section at local libraries.
For five years (2002-2007) i wrote a local history column for the Rhyl and Prestatyn visitor newspaper, with all 250 stories i had written and chronicled for future reference captured within the pages of four books entitled Harry Thoma's Memory Lane, still in print and availabe at High Street News Newsagents, High Street, Prestatyn, Siop Y Morfa bookshop High Street, Rhyl and Gwasg Heylgain Kinmel Street, Rhyl.
Today i like to think i am keeping local history alive through the talks i give to schools, clubs, orginisastions and societies by means of slide show presentations, during the summer months i also present a Prestatyn history slide show at a venue in the town, with a different local history subject each month.In addition my ghost walks during th summer are always very popular and a haunting experience.Click on to "forthcoming events" for future dates and times of my slide show presentations and ghost walks.
My T.V. appearances ivolving local history documentaries have been numerable, the most recent being the ancestral B.B.C T.V. series "who do you think you are" with Caral carol vorderman.A forthcoming history series "Coast" which will be shown in the spring 2009 will see me talking in the town of Rhyl, and with postcards from my collection i shall be looking at a Edwardian seaside holiday in Rhyl
To protect our future we must learn from the past don't you think? Rhyl and the neighbourhood started after i had visited an Antiques Fair at Chester's Northgate Arena in the late 1970's and purchased several old postcards of Prestatyn from a small box of postcards on a stallholders table at the fair, unbeknown during those early years that such treasures existed.From that day i discovered those old postcard views of Prestatyn i was hooked.Little realising how far-reaching it would captivate and fascinate my life with the wonderfull romantic and rewarding hobby of collecting old postcards of Prestatyn, Rhyl and District as i discovered that they are an important social history source, providing valuable evidence of a host of historical interests, postcards are small fragments of frozen time, giving us a window in which we can view the past and showing us a world lost forever.
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