Photographer Tracked Down People He Captured On Film About 40 Years Ago To Recreate Their Photos Years Later (30 New Pics)

riends Nasar Ali (left), Ali Shauqat (middle), Mohammed Shanawaz (right), Khalid Mahmood (crouching on left) and Mohammed Riza (crouching on right) are pictured by the Gladstone Street sign where they all lived. They returned for a reunion photo in 2010 but Khalid Mahmood was not available and Mohammed Shanawaz’s twin brother, Muhammed Shazad stood in for him. All the boys returned for the new reunion photo in May 2021.

Friends Abbey Gordon and Chris Porsz’s daughter, Emma Porsz, are pictured shopping in Westgate in Peterborough in 1996. Abbey said: “I’ve known Emma all my life, our mums were best friends, and we were born within a month of each other. We went to nursery and then all the same schools together. I think I was about 14 in the original photo. Every Saturday we’d meet up at 9am and wouldn’t be home until 5pm. We’d head to Westgate and meet up with other friends and go shopping.” Abbey now lives in Stanground and works at Morrisons. She has three children and is getting married next year.

 

Emma said: “Abbey and I used to go to town every Saturday, shopping and spying on the boys! My dad spotted us, called out our names and we turned, snap! It was so nice to catch up again after all those years. It was like things had never changed!” Emma, who now has two children, always enjoyed sport at school and became a PE teacher and personal trainer. She enjoys boxing, camping, hiking and working out in the gym and garden to keep fit.

Elizabeth (Bess) Bambridge was a Senior Sister in the A&E department at Peterborough District Hospital for 40 years. She worked at the hospital at the same time as Chris was a casualty porter and he captured a photo of her suturing a patient, a very common procedure after road accidents.

 

Chris said: “I would often go along a line of accident victims with a bucket and sponge so that the nurses and doctors could see what they were dealing with.”

 

Bess added: “It was horrendous as people would go through the windscreen and I would spend hours carefully taking the glass out of their faces. There weren’t as many members of staff in A&E in those days and less paperwork. It was very hands on. I remember one morning at 7.15am the porter called me as there was a couple with their 13-year-old daughter in the car and she was having an asthma attack. There was no receptionist or doctor around and I resuscitated her in the back of an ambulance. I’ll always remember that day. Fifteen years later her family sent me a photo of her at her wedding and said she wouldn’t be alive if it hadn’t been for me. The job was very rewarding. We saved lives and helped people every day.” Elizabeth is now retired and does charity work for the Thorpe Hall Sue Ryder hospice. She lives in the village of Thorney and the reunion photo was taken in her back garden.

Friends Muhammad Bashir and Abdul Karim (aka Uncle Paloo), were pictured walking past a house in Gladstone Street, Peterborough in 1980. The men both lived nearby. Abdul worked in the brickyards and a paper mill close to Peterborough in the 1970s and later went into car sales. He has been in poor health for over a decade, lives in Nottingham, and has nine children.

Nathan and Lisa Yates were photographed in a double buggy in Peterborough when they were aged two and three, eating crisps while out shopping with their mum. The siblings used to live near the city centre. Nathan, who works for Peterborough City Council, now lives in nearby Farcet and has a partner and four children. He said: “It’s wonderful how Chris captured that moment of time in my history.” He still regularly sees his sister, who lives in Peterborough and is a shop manager. Chris added: “I really admired their enthusiasm to take part, especially when Lisa even sourced a Mr T T-shirt. Since the reunion Nathan and I are no longer strangers but friends and often stop for a chat on our travels around town.”

Traffic warden Jayantilal Kotecha was seen writing a parking ticket in King Street in Peterborough in 1978. He was born in Uganda in April 1939 and came to London in 1971 before the President of Uganda, Idi Amin, expelled Ugandan Asians in 1972. He moved to Peterborough in 1972 and worked as a traffic warden for a few years but left because he suffered abuse and was once threatened with a knife. He spoke Hindi, Gujarati, and Swahili and occasionally helped the police in courts as an interpreter. He then worked in Barclays until his retirement in 1992. He is married to his wife Champa Kotecha and has three children, one of whom is a doctor.

 

He said: “In 1978 the winter was so severe the roads were frozen and the diesel froze so there were no buses or cars. Out of 26 traffic wardens, my friend and I were the only two to turn up for our shift after walking several miles to work. I remember the working conditions were very strict and we weren’t allowed to walk in pairs, not even to lunch."

Howard and Sharon Marshall (nee Bird) were spotted by Chris browsing wedding rings at Ernest Jones on Cathedral Square in Peterborough in the Spring of 1981. The couple met on a night out at The White Lion pub in the city in 1976 and got married at St John’s Church in Stanground in November 1981. They had their reception at London Brick’s Phorpres Social Club and a two-week honeymoon in Tenerife.

 

The pair, who celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in 2021, bought their first house in Peterborough in 1980, but spent a year renovating it before moving in together after they got married. Sharon worked for SodaStream after leaving school, then in 1984 she became a stay-at-home mum. Howard worked as an engineer for Royal Mail for nearly 40 years until retiring seven years ago.

Cheryl Geeves was pictured plunging into cold water in 1985 while her friend Pam Jackman (nee Huddlestone) awaited her turn. Cheryl said: “In the early eighties the big event in my husband’s household was the Deeping show where my late father-in-law, Jack Geeves, raised money for the junior section of the Deeping Angling Club. My childhood friend Pam and I used to go on a stall where the public threw balls to try and duck us into a pool of water, which was great fun.” Cheryl, who now has three children and two grandchildren, used to work in care homes. She married her then boyfriend George and most of the Geeves family involved in the Deeping show are still local. The shows finished quite a few years ago but she said: “The memories of those good times will never fade.” Pam works as a cleaner, has five children and eight grandchildren, and enjoys cycling.

 

Chris added: “My original idea was for Cheryl to jump in from a chair until she told me about her recent knee replacement! Worryingly she fell in, which explains why she is soaking wet and Pam is laughing her head off! As you can see it was a really fun reunion but this time in her garden on a very hot summer's day.”

Brothers Shujah and Zia Saklain were seen playing on their neighbour’s wall in Gladstone Street in Peterborough in the early 80s. They moved to the road when Shujah was three and stayed there for 14 years. They both still live in Peterborough. Shujah works as a driving instructor, runs humanitarian charity, Children of Adam, and teaches boxing, whilst Zia works as a car trader. “It was great fun climbing up on the wall again but strange to be back at our house again after so many years,” said Shujah. Unfortunately the other two boys could not be found to join Shujah and Zia on the wall again.