Dartmoor National Park Authority

8,000 photographs of Dartmoor's past now online

The Dartmoor Archive has launched a brand new web site making it easier for people to enjoy thousands of amazing historical photographs of the Moor.  The images date back to the mid 1800s and show how life has changed in one of Britain's most beautiful and yet inhospitable environments.  This incredible site already gets visitors from across the globe that have used it to track down their family histories, research school and college projects and find images that have personal significance to them.

The Dartmoor Archive contains some major collections from some of the south west's most influential photographers, artisans who combined their love for taking photographs and Dartmoor ensuring that important moments from our past were captured and preserved for the future.

• See how fashion has changed over the past 150 years from the reserved Victorians to the expressive times in the 60s and 70s.
• See the faces of the children who were relocated to the Moor during WW2.
• See pictures of how life carried on in some of the worst blizzards of modern times trapping people on the regular railway service that existed at the time.
• See how the high streets of Dartmoor's towns were once dirt tracks and the exclusive domain of horse and cart.

The Archive is now fully interactive; visitors are encouraged to contribute their knowledge and memory of the Moor and its people.

Thanks to hundreds of emails from people across the globe the stories that lie behind these influential photographs have come to life making this a truly personal resource for everyone.

Visit www.dartmoortrust.org (external link, opens new window) and click on the Archive link.

Ends

For further information

Jamie Dunbar, Manager, Dartmoor Archive

Tel:07722 336632

manager@dartmoorarchive.org

Notes for Editors

The Dartmoor Archive is run and funded by the Dartmoor Trust, an independent charity that grants aid to projects that help the Moor and its people.  The project relies on volunteers to help digitise, catalogue and source photographs from private individuals.  The Dartmoor Trust distributes donated funds to projects that meet their criteria. More information about the Dartmoor Trust can be found at their web site www.dartmoortrust.org (external link, opens new window). Both the manager of the Archive, Jamie Dunbar, and a key member of the Trust, John Earle, are available to speak and in many cases travel to your office to provide quality audio.  Full resolution photographs can also be provided on request.

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Page updated 15 May 2009