The archive is extensive and we aim to make many of these images available online.
*FEBRUARY 2025 UPDATE*
There are now more than 16,100 images on the website and our Other Collections section is growing, with several new collections just published including the CHAPEL AT HAGGATE and ELEANOR AND LEN'S GRAND TOURS - a fascinating look at package holiday tours in the 1950's. We have also inherited many images from the late Brian Hall's estate and we are working hard scanning these with the aim of adding many of them to the existing Brian Hall collection.
Did you know that you can also View our Articles to read longer articles written by our volunteers on a range of historical subjects.
We are now operating without the benefit of Heritage Lottery Funding and welcome donations to enable us to continue scanning negatives and making them available on the website. Donations can be made directly to us or via JUSTGIVING
Or scan our Just Giving account QR Code
We WELCOME NEW VOLUNTEERS and have vacancies on our Wednesday and Thursday afternoon sessions. If you can spare a couple of hours why not contact us and arrange a visit to the archive. All that is needed are some basic computer skills and an interest in local history. PENDLE AND WEST CRAVEN images can be found in the Surrounding Districts pages and we would welcome volunteers from the Pendle area to digitise images and stories about this area as we have no volunteers working on this area at the moment.
We have produced a short history about the project which you can download.
50 years Ago
The spot where the parish council plan shrubs to screen off the terrace on the right from industrial development at the Mullard Glass Factory on the left, just out of the picture.
Simonstone's plan to notch up extra points in the Best Kept Village Competition has ground to a halt. For a scheme to plant trees and shrubs on the banks of a former railway link through Simonstone has been caught up in a two-year tangle of British Rail red tape. And the red tape could cause some red faces, for in a reply to Simonstone Parish Council's request, British Rail officials said they think part of the property could still be required for "operational purposes." But many councillors feel British Rail must be on the wrong track - for the link which ran from Padiham to Blackburn was closed over 15 years ago! And the railway bridge which spanned Simonstone Lane came down when the line went out of commission leaving a gap which only a super-train could negotiate.
But until the British Rail mix-up is untangled it looks as though plans for Simonstone's brighter railway embankment have come to the end of the line.
