Keeping east Lancashire in the picture

Accrington Broadway old and new

This exciting two-year project, 2023-2025, will bring together thousands of people in east Lancashire, of different ages and backgrounds, to make the amazing collections of historic photographs in their libraries more accessible, inclusive and sustainable.

See upcoming events from keeping east Lancashire in the picture

With a budget of £222,000 (£192,000 provided by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and £30,000 by The Friends of Lancashire Archives), the project will see schools, community groups and individuals in Burnley, Pendle and Hyndburn invited and encouraged to

  • Explore their rich photographic heritage and help make digital versions of 100,000 images in the library collections.
  • Create new collections by finding significant existing images from within their communities and by taking new photographs that reflect life now
  • Share both old and new images, online – through Red Rose Collections - and offline, in ways that engage even more people in a creative and fun way.

A key project aim is to ensure that the library photographic collections reflect the diversity of the communities in east Lancashire. For example, 15% of people in Burnley and Hyndburn are of South Asian heritage, and in Pendle it's 27%, but this is not reflected in the collections - the project aims to help redress this imbalance.

An inclusive volunteering programme is at the heart of what we do, with 75 digitisation and research volunteer opportunities created across 4 project hubs based in local libraries in Accrington, Burnley, Nelson and Colne. If you are interested in volunteering for this project, please click on the link - Apply to be a keeping east Lancashire in the picture volunteer. In some of the hubs, we have a large number of volunteers and the application link may have been de-activated. If you are interested in volunteering and the link is not available, please use the contact details below and we can discuss the opportunities available.

In addition, across the four locations, we are organising public 'drop in' sessions, family 'fun days', regular exhibitions and illustrated talks, giving the community the opportunity to view the photographs, listen to speakers, meet the volunteer teams, help identify photographs with missing details learn about the local heritage and have fun. Please see Lancashire County Council Events page for what's coming up next.

Contact us by email archives@lancashire.gov.uk or phone 01772 533819 if you want to know more about the project, particularly if you are interested in getting involved.

 

 Thanks to National Lottery players