Share old photos of history on doorstep
PEOPLE across Southport will be able to discover and share old photographs of the area – from as early as the 1920s.
The trip down Memory Lane means residents will have access to historic archives of their home towns, and even be able to colourise them.
From photos of a packed Southport beach to the times The Beatles played in the town, the interactive archive be available at the touch of a button.
The free online picture archive – Memorylane.co.uk – created by owners of The Mirror and The Express – will mean people can celebrate historical events like bonfire night and Remembrance Sunday from years gone by.
Images can be searchable by location, date, topics, people and categories so that people can preserve, discover, share and colourise the past.
The launch of Memorylane. co.uk came after a YouGov survey revealed that 80 per cent of Brits haven’t digitised all their photos, suggesting that the past is in danger of being lost forever.
The survey – carried out in October – also saw 67 per cent of the population admit that they are looking for something that brings them comfort, and over half of UK adults (55 per cent) have been thinking about what we did before the pandemic.
Old photographs have gotten nearly a third of the population (31 per cent) through the pandemic.
Professor of History, author and broadcaster Kate Williams is supporting the launch.
She said: “Photographs are one of the most important social documents we have access to, allowing us to understand society and communities from different generations.
“We learn so much more about our past when we look at the photographs of everyday people as opposed to formal photos of royalty and aristocracy. If important images languish in the loft, there is a real danger they may be lost forever.”
Visit memorylane.co.uk.
Not a giant car boot sale, but Southport Beach on a summer’s day in the early 1960s... just enough room to set up a deckchair in between vehicles. Images like this will be available on MemoryLane. co.uk