Shropshire Archives launches fantastic collection of local photographs online
Shropshire Council’s Shropshire Archives service is launching a fantastic collection of photographs online for the first time. The photographs were taken by Ted Picken, who was born in Birmingham in 1879 and lived in Bucknell in south Shropshire from the early 20th century until his death in 1967.
Ted took photographs of everything and everyone in Bucknell and the collection consists of over 500 images. These are all now available to view at www.shropshirearchives.org.uk
The Old School House , Bucknell: Matthias and Elizabeth with two of their children Edward (Ted) and Elizabeth outside their general store.(The Old School House). Matthias died in 1896 and Elizabeth Picken in 1951. Shropshire Archives ref: PH/B/34/80
Volunteers from Shropshire Archives have worked over several years to catalogue and digitise the collection, which was originally on glass negatives. Tony Price, in particular, has worked extensively on the collection, and has researched the background to many of the photographs. Shropshire Archives is interested in any further information that people from Bucknell and beyond can reveal.
Postman in front of post office motorbike, c.1915-20, Shropshire Archives ref: PH/B/34/85/355
Tony Price said:-
“I have enjoyed working on the collection, and I hope we can find out more about the people and places in the photographs soon.”
Lezley Picton, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for culture, leisure, waste and communications, said:-
“It is a great achievement for the volunteers at Shropshire Archives to make all these photographs available. These 500 images now form part of over 60,000 images available on Shropshire Archives’ online catalogue. This is an outstanding resource for everyone in Shropshire to enjoy.”
For further details and if you can add background information about the photographs, contact archives@shropshire.gov.uk or call in at Shropshire Archives, Castle Gates, Shrewsbury SY1 2AQ.
