Thurgoland in Times Past
Thurgoland is a quiet village, five miles from Barnsley in South Yorkshire. In 1990, Fred Roebuck discovered over 1,000 glass photographic plates of the district taken by local photographer, Frank Downing, between 1898 and 1948.
The photographs taken by Frank Downing provide the majority of the images on the website, and, together with other donated photographs, give a fascinating glimpse into past times in Thurgoland.
Thurgoland was a very important centre for the early iron-making and wire-drawing industries, from the 17th century onwards, and Downing’s photographs show that life changed very little until the 1950s.
The glass plates are in the care of the Barnsley Archive at the Central Library. Thurgoland Local History Group have published a book and DVD, ‘Thurgoland in Times Past’, with funding from the Heritage Lottery, Thurgoland Parish Council and Thurgoland Local History Group.
Thurgoland in Times Past Order Online
The book is beautifully printed with 150 pages of photographs, capturing the characters and places of Thurgoland and the surrounding area at a time rarely captured on film.
The DVD features over one-and-a-half hours of entertaining photographic history of the local people and places of Thurgoland and the surrounding area.
