VISITORS to an exhibition yesterday saw snapshots of the North-East from the air in years gone by.

The free exhibition of aerial shots taken over County Durham was held in Brandon library, near Durham City.

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 a million photographs showing the changing face of Britain from 1919 to 2006.

Some of these photographs were made available to local volunteers who 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 gathered round the stages, listening to speeches, and suddenly the photograph really comes to life.”

The exhibition was only for one day, but photographs can be viewed at britainfromabove.org.uk