A VISUAL record charting more than 300 years of the region's history can be accessed by the Internet thanks to a £170,000 grant from English Heritage.
Hundreds of images charting the working life of the North-East have gone online and can be seen by anyone with access to the Internet.
More than 20,000 previously unseen images revealing more than 300 years of working life in England were made public yesterday by the National Monuments Record, which acts as the nation's visual archive, overseen by English Heritage.
The website, which is aimed at the general public, history enthusiasts and students, has taken years to create and dozens of English Heritage researchers have collected the vast array of images.
England at Work has been designed to give members of the public a record of the changing nature of working life in the country over the past 300 years.
The archive contains images ranging from Wearmouth Colliery to Witham Hall, in Barnard Castle, County Durham, and also includes scenes of farm and village life, as well as bridges, historic city-scapes and industrial and military architecture.
The website was launched by English Heritage chairman Sir Neil Cossons, who said the North-East's rich heritage featured strongly in the archive pictures.
He said: "These are our grandparents and great grandparents at work - it is a record of who we were and informs who we are.
"English Heritage's long-term goal is to digitise the majority of its ten million archive items, normally only accessible through a visit to the National Monument Record public search rooms in Swindon and London, creating an unrivalled electronic archive which is accessible to all."
Stephen Dunmore, of the New Opportunities Fund, hoped people in the region would take advantage of the website to discover the visual history of the region.
He said: "We are proud to be involved with ViewFinder and to encourage and support the efforts of English Heritage to make the wider community aware of this wonderful opportunity."
View the archives at www.english-heritage.org.uk/viewfinder
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