The Parish Church Photographic Survey
About C B Newham
Early Life and Education
I was born on August 12, 1965, in South Yarra, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, to Beth (born London, 1926) and Neville (Castlemaine, 1929–2022) Newham. I attended Camberwell Grammar School from 1970 to 1977. At the end of 1977, our family relocated to Perth, Western Australia, where I completed my education at Scotch College in 1983, focusing on Physics, Geography, Geology, and History. I earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Western Australia (UWA) in 1987, majoring in Information Technology and Geography.
Career
My professional career began at Universal Defence Industries (later Australian Defence Industries) in March 1989, where I worked as a software engineer. During this period, I authored the O'Reilly book "Learning the Bash Shell," which remains in print as of 2025 in its third edition—a remarkable longevity for a software book.
In 1996, I relocated to the United Kingdom, where I have spent the subsequent 29 years working in various IT roles, both permanent and contract positions, including at Nomura Research Institute, Macromedia, and the British Library.
Church Documentation Project
Beginning in February 1997, I embarked on a systematic project to digitally photograph buildings listed in Pevsner's "Buildings of England" series—likely the first person to undertake such documentation in digital format. This initiative evolved into detailed documentation of rural parish churches, complemented by numerous Pevsner "perambulations" and comprehensive building photography. My archive now encompasses approximately 8,500 churches documented in roughly 500,000 images, representing one of Europe's largest photographic archives dedicated to a single subject. Additionally, I have conducted photogrammetric studies of several hundred monumental effigies, resulting in tens of thousands of additional detailed photographs.
Digital Innovation
In 2013, I released my first major mobile application, "Keyholder," on the Google Play Store (later expanded to Apple iOS). This crowd-sourced platform enables visitors to Church of England churches to document their experiences through written accounts and photographs. As of 2025, app users have visited over three-quarters of England and Wales' 15,000 churches and photographed more than one-third of them.
Publications
In October 2022, I published my latest book, "Country Church Monuments," a collection showcasing 365 of the finest church monuments in England and Wales.
The full list of publications is as follows:
Country Church Monuments, C B Newham (Particular Books, 2022)
Book of Effigies II, C B Newham (DAE Publishing, 2014)
Book of Effigies, C B Newham (DAE Publishing, 2013)
Some Old Devon Churches, vols 1 & 2, C B Newham (DAE Publishing, 2009)
Royal Arms in Cornish Churches, C.B. Newham and Rosemary A. Pardoe (DAE Publishing, 2007)
Learning the Bash Shell, Cameron Newham & Bill Rosenblatt (O'Reilly, 1993, 1997, 2005)
My photographs have also appeared in many publications, including those by Sally Badham and Toby Capwell.