Exciting £220k archive project to be launched in Burnley and Pendle

The exciting £220k project will create library project hubs in Nelson, Colne, and Burnley, offering online access to 100,000 images of the area's heritage.

Three South Asian heritage community groups, six primary schools and three photographic societies will also help to provide thousands of images documenting modern-day life over the next two years.

The project has the green light thanks to a £190k grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund as part of the Dynamic Collections programme, and £30k from the Friends of Lancashire Archives.

David Tilsley, senior archivist at Lancashire County Council's cultural services, said: "Our aim is to make the collections of historic photographs in East Lancashire libraries more accessible, inclusive, and sustainable.

"We want to use the common ground provided by a shared local history to bring people together. Participants will be encouraged to explore our collections and supported to create new images and to share the old and new with the wider community.

"The scheme will feature an inclusive volunteering programme, including 75 digitisation and research volunteer opportunities in the four project hubs in Accrington, Burnley, Nelson and Colne libraries. Meanwhile, one of our key aims is for the library photographic collections to reflect the diversity of the communities in East Lancashire.

"At present, the collections do not reflect the reality of communities - for example, 15% of people in Burnley and Hyndburn are Asian, and in Pendle it's 27%, so we aim for this project to really redress this imbalance."

Contact [email protected] or 01772 533031 to find out more.