Life through a lens: How Jean Napier swapped engineering in Essex for photography in Eryri

May 20, 2025

Life through a lens: How Jean Napier swapped engineering in Essex for photography in Eryri

Like the north and mid-Wales landscapes that so enthral her, Jean Napier is a survivor. From her own premature birth to divorce, single parenthood, financial hardship and almost drowning in a canoe accident, she has established herself as a successful photographer and author.

Her first photographic book - about Rhosydd slate quarry - was in black and white, yet Jean's life has been incredibly colourful: she's co-founded a brewery, worked her way up from secretary to engineer with car maker Ford, used her karate skills to fend off a would-be assailant on a London Tube train, been charged by a hippo in Africa and been an England reserves sprinter.

For the past 30 years, she's lived more peacefully in Tywyn, exploring the wild and post-industrial landscapes of Meirionnydd and Eryri and bringing them to life in her books and photographs.

"I just absolutely love the beauty and history of north and mid-Wales," explains Jean, who's accompanied on her forays by her beloved ten-year-old border collie, Jes. "One of the things that fascinates me is that at one time there would have been thousands of men working in Meirionnydd in more than 60 mines - gold, slate, copper and manganese - and now that's all gone. Luckily, it was classed as poor land, which saved it from exploitation and enabled Nature to take over, meaning that centuries-old remains are still scattered across the landscape. Exploring this amazing land has been the subject of all my six books."

She's currently researching her seventh, about the history of the people of Llŷn.

The books - three of which follow the course of six Eryri rivers - took several years to complete. "For each of the rivers books, I walked all of them from source to sea and explored the land along the banks, taking photographs, interviewing farmers and researching the ancient history and industrial past. Farmer friends of mine have said I probably know more about this part of Wales than they do!"

One of Jean's photos of Afon/River Dysynni

The wild and rugged topography of rural Wales couldn't be more different from the inner-city landscape of Jean's childhood in east London just after the Second World War. Born in 1948, she arrived six weeks early and spent the first few weeks of her life "in a shoe box by the fire" dressed in dolls' clothes. "I was born just before the creation of the NHS, so my father had to pay for a midwife; if I'd been born just four months later, I'd have been free! He wasn't best pleased!"

Money was tight, as Jean's father suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder caused by his war experiences and struggled to hold down jobs. As a result, the family moved constantly and Jean and her two younger brothers were largely left to fend for themselves.

To escape the family's peripatetic lifestyle, Jean decided at the age of 11 to go to boarding school. She duly won a free place at a school in Oxfordshire "because I was good at maths and a good runner".

Once there, she thrived, excelling academically - coming top of the A class four years running - and in sport. "One year I won the school sports cup, and I also started running for Oxfordshire - we used to train on the same track Roger Bannister ran his sub-four-minute mile." By the age of 14, she was an England reserve for the 100 and 150 yards.

But a year later, at 15, Jean decided to drop out of school without taking her O-Levels. "I was having such a good time with boys and I just wanted to leave, even though my dad went up the wall."

A series of shop and factory jobs followed before, at 20, she gave birth to a daughter called Sarah. "I'd split up with the father by then and didn't feel I was in a good position to look after her, so I made the difficult decision to have her adopted. But 29 years later, she tracked me down and we were reunited. I found out I was a granny, which was amazing, and we're still in touch today."

Jean then married and had another child, son Ian. "By the time he was five, I was a single parent, so I decided it was time to get a 'proper' job to support us both."

After training as a secretary, she went to work for the Carburettor Manager at Ford Motor Company's research centre in Essex, where her knowledge of cars quickly became apparent. "My ex-husband's hobby was rebuilding vintage cars, and because I used to help him, I'd learnt a lot about car engines."

Following a series of promotions, Jean ended up as an engineer working on mechanical prototype engines. "I was the only female there who wasn't a secretary," she remembers. "There were 3,000 men and me! Let's just say they eventually got used to me!"

If Jean's ex-husband taught her about car engines and presented her with her first camera, it was her second long-term partner, Rob, who introduced her to hill-walking and real ale: in 1981, along with a mutual friend, they founded Crouch Vale Brewery, which is still going today and is now Essex's longest-established brewery.

When she and Rob split up after ten years together, Jean decided it was time for something completely different, and at the age of 43 she left Ford and enrolled on a BA Honours degree course in photography at the University of Derby.

During the long summer vacations, she moved to Aberdyfi to work as an instructor for Outward Bound. "Some years before, I'd qualified as a mountain leader and canoe instructor and visited Wales regularly with an outdoor pursuits centre in Harlow, and that's when I fell in love with the Welsh landscape. Being in Aberdyfi for the summer enabled me to explore this area in great detail over a number of years and inspired my photography."

When she completed her degree, Jean moved to Wales full-time, earning a living through outdoor pursuits, photography and helping to train and promote women in business through the organisation Chwarae Teg (Fair Play).

Before long, she'd added "author" to her list of achievements, beginning with the book about Rhosydd quarry, north of Blaenau Ffestiniog, which had been the subject of her BA Honours degree and first exhibition.

A Master's degree in Fine Art (Photographic Studies) from the University of Aberystwyth followed in 2015. "Having left school with no qualifications, I wanted to prove I had a brain!"

At 77, Jean is still working, teaching photography, giving talks and selling her photographs and books at ArtWorks Aberdyfi and other outlets.

"I'm really good at earning a living, because I've had to be - I'm a survivor," Jean says simply. "Being a single parent was tough and being self-employed is always a struggle. But I've done more than survive - I've found a way to combine my love of the outdoors, my creative side and my interest in engineering, while living in a wonderful part of the world. I'm not planning on moving anywhere else."

* To find out more about Jean Napier's work, visit https://www.jean-napier.com. Photos accompanying this article are used with Jean's kind permission.