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Bristol Post
Bristol Post
National
Daniel Chipperfield

New website brings striking images of Bristol history back to life

A new website has been launched providing a free nostalgic online picture archive as the nation heads into lockdown.

Memorylane.co.uk provides people with a home for photographs that may have remained hidden for years.

A rich, interactive and nostalgic archive with content searchable by location, date, topics, people, categories and more - it aims to create a bigger, more inclusive picture of history by allowing you to preserve, discover, share and colourise the past.

The interactive image and nostalgia archive allows content to be searched by location, date, topics, people, categories and more.

A destination for sharing, discussing, selling and viewing pictures of places and people from times gone by - images are uploaded from users, newspaper archives, communities, schools, museums, councils, local businesses and more.

Despite events being cancelled nationwide, the new tool allows people to celebrate and share historical moments like Fireworks night and Remembrance Sunday.

Backed by broadcaster, author and historian Professor Kate Williams, website MemoryLane.co.uk follows a YouGov survey carried out for Memory Lane suggesting that the past is in danger of being lost because 80% of Brits haven’t digitised all their photos.

It revealed 67% of the population are looking for something that brings them comfort while more than half of UK adults (55%) are thinking about what we did before the pandemic.

Almost a third of the population (31%) are looking at old photographs to get themselves through these strange times.

The campaign video features diverse images that unite the nation and communities including Bonfire Night, Remembrance Sunday, the NHS, migration, Windrush and street parties. 

Professor Kate Williams said: “Photographs are one of the most important social documents we have access to, allowing us to understand society and communities from different generations.

"We learn so much more about our past when we look at the photographs of everyday people as opposed to formal photos of royalty and aristocracy.

"If important images languish in the loft, there is a real danger they may be lost forever.”

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