NEW MILLS PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE

New Mills Local History Society was formed in 1982 and, alongside its other activities, soon began to collect photographs of local interest, either donated by members of the public or copied from originals lent for that purpose. Many people generously contributed in this way, and in 2004 the collection contained about 6000 photographs. It now contains many more.  The Society's archivist has stored the photographs and negatives under archival conditions and, as each photograph was acquired, he compiled an index card recording details of the photograph.

It became increasingly obvious that such a rich collection of photographs was not as accessible to the public as it
ought to be, and in 2004 it was decided that an application should be made to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a grant to enable the collection to be digitised and placed on public access computers in New Mills Library and New Mills Heritage Centre as well as being made available more generally via the internet. The Heritage Lottery Fund agreed to grant £46,700 for the work to be done as a joint project of the Local History Society and Heritage Centre.

From 2005 to 2009 the archivist prepared the collection for scanning and provided information about each image from the index cards, so that the collection could be put into a large database. Other volunteers helped in many ways, particularly with the indexing of the database and additional information, so that, in all, many hundreds of hours of volunteer-time have been spent on the project. Since 2009 many thousands of photographs have been added. New Mills Local History Society hopes that the collection will be useful and give enjoyment to people all over the world, particularly those with New Mills connections.

Unidentified Pictures Can you help?

We have a number of pictures that have so far evaded identification. They may not all relate to the New Mills area but most of them probably do. To see them please click on "Unidentified" under the letter U in the KEYWORD EXPLORER search. Your help would be appreciated.

Donations

Donations or loans of photographs or copies will be gratefully accepted to enhance the collection and provide new material for public and private research. If you can help please email New Mills Local History Society at nmlhs@newmillshistory.org.uk