We are at 14 Broad Street, Ludlow, Shropshire, SY8 1NN — two minutes’ walk up from the Buttercross, on the same side as the old saddler’s the studio began above in 1957. There is metered parking on Broad Street itself and a longer-stay car park off Corve Street, a five-minute walk down the hill. The studio entrance is street-level and step-free; the north-light room where most sittings happen is one flight up, and we are always happy to bring a sitting downstairs if stairs are a problem — just mention it when you book.

A quicker reply usually comes from a little detail up front: the kind of sitting (family, wedding, corporate, restoration), a rough date or date range, and roughly how many people are involved. For weddings, the venue and guest count help us quote accurately first time rather than back and forth by email. For restoration enquiries, a phone photo of the damaged original is enough for us to give you an honest first opinion before you post or bring in anything precious.

If this is a first sitting, come five minutes early — we keep a kettle on, and a few minutes to settle in and see the room usually makes the sitting go faster, not slower. Bring any outfit changes already on hangers if you can, since a crushed shirt fresh out of a bag rarely photographs as well as one that has hung for an hour. Children are welcome to bring one comfort toy into the studio, and we build breaks into any sitting involving under-fives as standard, at no extra charge and with no judgement whatsoever — Constance has three nieces and has seen every version of a sitting go sideways before it goes right.

If you’re chasing an order, a reprint, or a file from a previous sitting, mention the approximate date and the name it was booked under — Ben can usually find it in the appointment book within a few minutes even for sittings decades old, thanks to Walter’s original card index, still kept in parallel with the digital one. Archive and restoration enquiries typically take a little longer to answer in full, since Priya often needs to physically locate the negative before she can tell you what is possible.

The studio is open Tuesday to Saturday, 9:30 to 5:30, and closed Sunday and Monday so the team gets a proper weekend — a rule Walter set in 1957 that nobody since has seriously argued with. Phone calls are answered live during those hours; outside them, leave a message and Ben will call back the next working day. Emails are read every day, including Mondays, and almost always answered within one working day regardless of when they arrive.

Journalists and local historians researching Ludlow occasionally write in about the archive, and we are usually glad to help — Ben keeps a short list of previously published Fenwick photographs and can advise on usage and, where the sitting is old enough, on who to credit alongside the studio. Trade enquiries from framers, printers or fellow photographers are also welcome; put "trade" in the subject line and your message goes straight to Priya rather than the general enquiry queue.