by Alf Wilkinson

Most people find old photographs fascinating, and they can shed a great deal of light upon the local area.

Don't be put off by people who say there are NO photographs of your area. I live in a very small Lincolnshire village and for the Millennium we decided to put on an exhibition of old photographs.

Some long-term residents said no-one would have any photos as most people were agricultural labourers and didn't have cameras. An appeal in the local paper and a small exhibition at the monthly coffee morning quickly brought to light lots of previously hidden away evidence!

Some old photographs are useful as a source of information, or to show something that happened. Take this one for instance. The river on the left is usually 10 feet or more below the level of the road - 1912 was obviously a very wet year!

We can also use old photographs to compare then and now. Here is an early coloured postcard of Heckington railway station and windmill, probably dating from just before the First World War. Pupils can be shown this and a modern view and asked to look for similarities and differences. What has changed? What is the same? The station is still open, but in many parts of the country local stations, and railway lines, have long gone! The mill is still there, but no longer operating. What else has changed?

Photographs can also shed light on history in a way most textbooks do not. Look at this photograph for example. This is obviously a special village occasion - everyone is in their best clothes, a cart has been brought to use as a grandstand, most people are intently watching the performance - although some are more interested in the camera. What does this tell us about village life? That it was so boring the high spot was watching a horse playing a piano? In fact it was a fund-raising event for the local chapel - or so I've been told, but no-one knows for certain.

Photographs can also act as the starting point for an investigation into the past. They can perhaps tell us some things, but we need to investigate further to find out some, if not all, of the answers posed by them. Take this one, it is an interesting photo in its own right, although I don't know very much about it. The lady crossing the road obviously could not stand still long enough for the exposure and so appears as a 'blur' walking across the road! It shows a shop and in the distance what appears to be a pub, with a pony and cart disappearing in the distance. The building that seems to be a pub is today called 'The Old Bowling Green', so perhaps that was the name of the pub. How can we find out more about what is in the photo? There are no pubs, shops, post office or school in the village today. The buildings still stand, on the corner of Fen Road, so the first place to look is an OS map. You can also find an 1891 map for Little Hale on the Landmark web site - www.old-maps.co.uk - so you should be able to check whether the buildings were present then. The 1881 Census for Little Hale lists Thomas Parker as a grocer, and his daughter Elizabeth as a dressmaker. The shop window seems to be full of clothes - could this be the Parker's shop? There is no-one whose occupation is listed as 'publican'. Trade directories can help too. This is an extract from Kelly's Directory for Lincolnshire for 1913. The relevant entries are: Coddington John, shopkeeper Dickinson Thomas, Bowling Green P.H. Fulforth Charles, joiner & farmer, Post office Maddison, May (Mrs.), shopkeeper Tasker Thos. L.blacksmith & shopkpr. So in 1913 there were four shops and a public house in the village. At least we have found out about the pub, but would need to explore further to find out about the shops. There are other census returns to look at (1901 will be available soon) and plenty of older, as well as more recent trade directories to explore. You could also ask some of the older inhabitants of the village what they can remember - they are often glad to talk about the old days! Finally, to help, here is the same view today.

There are lots of sources of old photographs on the web - try searching by the name of the place you are interested in to begin with. Going to www.genuki.org.uk, and searching using the term 'old photographs' should help get you going.

Also, why not visit your local record office; it will certainly have a good selection of photographs as well as census data and trade directories.