Event celebrates Burnley Civic Trust heritage image collection saved from Burnley Express archive

The vast archive of microfilm rolls, newspaper cuttings and negatives, some dating back to 1877, have been given a new home online thanks to a Heritage Lottery Fund grant and the sterling work of Burnley Civic Trust volunteers.

The collection, a priceless remnant of Burnley’s social history, faced being left without a home in 2016 when the Burnley Express moved from its historic offices in Bull Street to a smaller location on the edge of town.

It is now housed at the old police station at the back of Burnley Town Hall.

Roger Frost, the then chairman of Burnley Civic Trust and Burnley Express local history columnist, was asked if the Trust would be interested, and an application duly went in to the Heritage Lottery Fund to seek funding to digitise the negatives and create a website which would make the images available to everyone.

Not perturbed by an initial rejection, a second application went in and was accepted in October, 2018, leading to a grant of £32,4000 which was used to buy vital equipment and training for the volunteers.

Roger said: “The Burnley Express archives are a vital source material for Burnley’s social history and it is so pleasing that we have been able to preserve it and give it a new home.

"It is also a useful resource for family and social historians, as well as capturing Burnley’s history through a national perspective. We all started with low expectations but it has really mushroomed. I have people contacting me from across the world that have seen the photographs either in the Burnley Express or on our website.

"This has been the biggest project ever undertaken by any civic trust in the country.”

The small group of vounteers and just two microfilm reader machines set to work on the huge project. Equipment was bought, the website was commissioned and punblicity arrnaged to attract new volunteers including help from Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale Council for Voluntary Services.

The website www.bcthic.org was launched in March 2019 when sufficient images had been digitised and uploaded.

Civic Trust volunteer Susan Barker said: “There’s still lots of images we haven’t uploaded, we’ve barely scratched the surface. There’s always new material and people, particularly ex-pats, are genuinely interested in looking back. I had someone bed-ridden in Australia who contacted me to say they had seen it.”

The website now has more than 10,500 images and 24 researched articles relating to some of the images.

Project manager Edward Walton said the next aim was to seek further funding from elsewhere to continue the work of processing the archive.

Volunteering sessions are held on Wednesday and Thursday from 1pm until 4-30pm when images are scanned from negatives, stories typed up from the microfilm rolls and then uploaded to the website. Some volunteers carry out additional work at home too.