A GROWING collection of photographs and records chronicling the history of a former mining community is available to be read world-wide.

The Brandon and Byshottles archive is now available via a website launched as part of Local History Week celebrations, at the public library in Brandon, near Durham City.

It is the result of many dedicated hours of research by local author and historian John Kitching, who hopes it will encourage other people, including exiled Brandonians round the world, to add new items of information.

Apart from a short history of the village, there are more than 300 photographs, many capturing images of the long-gone mining industry, which was responsible for the growth of Brandon and neighbouring villages from the mid-19th Century.

The website includes local interest group sections, so far featuring the Browney Colliery Lodge Banner Action Group, and the Brandon Allotments section. Mr Kitching said the archive is helping to spread word about the village around the world.

"There are people from Brandon now living in New Zealand, Australia, North America and across Europe, and this gives them a chance to see what's happening here now.

"It's also a chance for us to try to trace long-lost friends and relatives. If they give us information by e-mail or the message board we can try to make contact on their behalf."

The archive features information from the Durham Record and the census of 1881, plus paintings by former Bevan Boy Ted Holloway.

Anyone visiting the library can access the archive, while the website can be found on www.btinternet.com/ronald-kitching. The library is open from 9.30am daily, except for Sunday, closing at 5pm on Monday and Tuesday, 12.30pm on Wednesday and Saturday, and 7pm on Thursday and Friday.

It remains closed for an hour at lunchtime, from 12.30pm, on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.