LEOMINSTER’S history is being celebrated with a collection of photographs taken more than 90 years ago.

As part of the View+ project, Hereford Museum Service currently has a large number of glass plate negatives taken by Thomas Henry Winterbourn of the town.

Digitised versions of the images were displayed to a group of Leominster residents last month at the community centre.

Ben Moule, curatorial trainee at Hereford Museum Service, said: “The slides give us a window into the costume, lives and surroundings of people in Herefordshire in the late Victorian period, highlighting the similarities and differences between the generations and forming an invaluable social record.

“The digitisation and sharing of this collection is ongoing, and was started in conjunction with the View+ project. Events like this are part of our commitment to community outreach and bringing the collections to the people they belong to; the people of Herefordshire.”

Thomas Winterbourn’s photography covered the period 1870-1922, when he worked from his Broad Street home in Leominster.

The plates came from two sets of large donations, one of around 3,000 glass plate negatives from Mr Winterbourn’s grandson Richard Winterbourn, and from the Knox family who acquired about 4,000 glass plate negatives when they bought their house.

David Stevens, a social history curator and documentation officer for Hereford Museums Service, was responsible for taking a sample to Leominster Community Centre last month where they were shown to a group of local people.

The centre was once the Leominster school building which a number of participants had previously attended.

Mr Moule said: “In the first session we showed them shops and street scenes, and asked the group for their ideas about location, impressions and any memories they have of the locations shown.

“The first session was very successful, as the group was able to identify most of the scenes, and in some cases could identify people in the images, and their stories.

“The images in this second session were more varied, and included a number of groups, for example; school children from Leominster school, outings and so on, at various locations around the town and county.

“One set, for example was of a group of people outside Berrington Hall.”

View+ is coordinated by The Share Initiative – a not-for-profit organisation based in Hereford.

It is TSI’s final project and will finish at the end of 2014 when it will be supporting the First World War cultural services exhibition in Hereford Art Gallery.

The Share Initiative director Paul Haley is encouraging families to bring in old photographs to Leominster Library this summer.

He said: “We would like to encourage people in mainly north Herefordshire to help identify First World War soldiers going to war as there are a large number of portrait shots of men in uniform, including some with families.”