Ilford Witness: How a Lancashire mill town nearly became the Wetzlar of England

It’s the centenary of the Leica I Model A, introduced in 1925 and celebrated anew in 2025. We haven’t heard the last of this, and it is certain to be a story that will run and run throughout the year. Leica is using the tag line, “Witness to a Century”. But there was another Witness. With the Ilford Witness, things could have turned out differently.

Go north-west, young man

In a parallel universe, several spools of film away from reality, Leica would have gone bust in 1972 and Wetzlar would no longer be hosting truckloads of keen fans throughout the year. They’d be going to Bolton instead. The place where the the Ilford Witness rangefinder was developed. Manufacture was later moved to Ilford, London, but I prefer the romance of Bolton. And, after all, this is a parallel universe: Macfilos

The well-heeled hordes of the IIS (International Ilford Society) and the Ilford Fellowship would be flocking to Bolton, a town in the county of Lancashire, not far from Manchester and just 15 miles from the Wigan of Wigan Pier fame. Indeed, the Ilford Witness could have signalled a utopian rather than a dystopian future.

Ilford Witness: The takeover

In this alternate reality, the Ilford Witness camera, produced in Bolton by a brace of German optical experts, one from Leitz and one from Zeiss, would have taken over the world.

Enthusiasts from around the world would have flocked to the Lancashire cotton-mill town, to sample the delights of the home of the Samuel Crompton’s Spinning Mule, invented at his home in Hall i’th’Wood in 1779. They would enjoy candle-lit cruises along the Manchester Ship Canal over a bowl of Chicken Tikka Masala, from one of Bolton’s traditional eateries.

There would have been an International Ilford Society, Witness Photo Walks to view the 16th Century Bolton School on Chorley New Road. And Jono Slack would have forsaken Crete and its lefkó krasí¹ for Blackpool and a glass of milk stout at Yates’s Wine Lodge.

Using the latest beta-Witness digital wonder, he would bring us his inimitable photographic record of kiss-me-quick hats on the prom, colourful Blackpool rock, and the scenic delights of Lytham St. Annes instead of Sfakia.

Good story

It’s an enticing prospect, especially for us Lancastrians, born within booming distance of a cotton mill or coal pit. Pure speculation, but it makes for a good story.

If you want to find out more about how Bolton nearly became the Wetzlar of England, read this article, published here on Macfilos eight years ago.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Photomemorabilia.co.uk for reference material used in this article and its 2017 predecessor. We are also indebted to Frank Dabba Smith for valuable background on Robert Sternberg and for the facsimile of Dr. Leitz’s letter used in the original article (link above)

The product photographs used in both articles are reproduced with permission of Leica enthusiasts Dunk Sargent and John Dodkins.

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1. λευκό κρασί (lefkó krasí), white wine, particularly in Crete, or “aspró krasí” in many other parts of Greece ↩︎