Welcome to
Holmes Chapel Photo Archive

Since the invention of photography in the 1840s, it has been used by professionals and amateurs alike to capture images of people, places, everyday life and important moments in the experience of communities and nations.

Photographs are especially valuable to historians, adding to the written and spoken sources from which family, local and national history is constructed. Confirming the saying that “a picture is worth a thousand words”, photographs are vivid images of the way we live now and how others lived in the past.

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Many former residents of Holmes Chapel photographed their family, friends, houses, schools, churches, farms, streets and special occasions. From time to time, photographs were taken to illustrate newspaper articles or be published as postcards. From the 1960s, members of previous local history groups began to collect these images, though there must be many more yet to be discovered in private photo albums. Hundreds of historic images of Holmes Chapel are now held by the Holmes Chapel and District U3A Local History Group. In 2018, the Holmes Chapel and District U3A Local History Group decided that the best way to preserve the collection and improve access to it for the public community was by creating a website and uploading the photographs. With grant support from the Co-operative Community Fund and other sources, this has now been done. Do enjoy browsing this Photo Archive and do consider uploading any historic or important images of Holmes Chapel you may have for others to enjoy.

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We hope this archive will be in existence for many years to come. Consequently, today’s images are the historic images for the future inhabitants of Holmes Chapel and need to be preserved. In the digital age this is particularly important so please upload your current photos of our village now.

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For those curious about the history of Holmes Chapel you may want to explore www.holmeschapelhistory.co.uk. This site is also run by the U3A Local History Group.