Sue Murray ARPS

Sue MurrayARPS 

Sue has been a familiar sight around Wivenhoe for many years invariably with her camera. 

She earned her Associateship of the Royal Photographic Society in 1985 with a collection of photographs which she describes as her ‘Art’ pictures. She has shown her work of people and subjects around Wivenhoe in many local exhibitions as well as further afield. 

She has taken hundreds of photographs of mainly people and local events in which she has taken a great interest. Some of her photographs she has allowed to be used in this Wivenhoe web site. 

“Apart from the community events and contributions to Wivenhoe Council’s promotions, the main feature of my work has been documentary, much of it for the Essex Record Office and English Heritage, through the Wivenhoe Society.

My last major project was a four year record of the construction of the surge barrier on the River Colne. 

But now in my eightieth year, it is an emergency! I must capture precious moments in time – never repeated, and, because of my camera, never forgotten.”Sue Murray, 2003. 

Sue has always been a very modest person. She started a business at the age of 23 designing and producing a wide range of high quality wooden toys. In 1971 she brought it to Brightlingsea, setting up workshops in the barns opposite All Saints Church. In 1985, the quality of her work was recognised by the Tate Gallery in St Ives which included one of her posters in an exhibition and referred to as ‘Sue Wynter, the magical toymaker’. (Note: Sue became ‘Sue Wynter’ when she married Brian Wynter, the painter, in 1949). In 2008, 25 of her designs are to be exhibited in the permanent collection at the Museum of Childhood in London. She sold the business in 1984 and devoted her energies to photography. Her business, theToy Trumpet Workshops Ltd., has been written up and published by the ‘Reminiscences of Brightlingsea’ Group of University of the Third Age (U3A) in Brightlingsea. For pictures of a few of her toy designs and information about the booklet, click here.      

	The Captains Cottages on The Quay, Wivenhoe, photograph entitled ‘The Scavenger’ by Sue Murray  (Note: This picture was entered by Sue for the Tendring Hundred Show Art Exhibition 2003)  Below: Wivenhoe Waterfront. A photograph of Wivenhoe taken by Sue and reproduced many times.