RARE photographs of the North-East from the air in years gone by are to go on show.

A free exhibition of aerial shots of a number of County Durham villages takes place at Brandon Library, near Durham City, from 4pm until 6pm today (October 18).

Historian Dr Dorothy Hamilton and local groups from the Brandon and Esh Winning area have been working together as part of English Heritage’s Britain From Above project.

In 2007, English Heritage acquired the Aerofilms Collection of more than one million photographs showing the changing face of Britain from 1919 to 2006.

Some of these photographs were made available to local volunteers who then tried to find the stories behind the people and places in the images.

Dr Hamilton said: "In isolation, many of these photographs probably mean very little to someone who doesn’t know the background, but when you start to find out more about exactly what has been photographed and why, you realise their significance as a fantastic resource on our local history.

"For example, we’ve got photos of a 1940s Miners’ Gala which, to the uneducated eye, simply feature a lot of dots, but we’ve been able to explain that groups of "dots" are people gathering round the stages, listening to the speeches and suddenly the photograph really comes to life."

Britain from Above Activity Officer, Sandra Brauer, said: "This is a wonderful project that with the involvement of local communities will produce a fantastic online resource of information, anecdotes and audio recordings, covering England, Scotland and Wales."

For further information on the photographs, please visit www.britainfromabove.org.uk.