101 photographs, 101 years

Ronnie Wilson outside Castle Stores on High Street

“101 photographs, 101 years” is Book 4 of the series produced by the Slingsby Local History Group. It is on sale from David Thornley on 01653 627210 at the price of £9. All proceeds go to SLHG and are then ploughed back into village projects. The glossy publication contains 100 old black and white photographs, plus the cover photo above, taken from 1864 to 1965. All have now been digitally restored. If you have never seen the difference digital restoration can make, you will be amazed.

In the mid-20th century it was fashionable to send postcards home when you went on holiday and there were many taken of the Slingsby area. Although a lot of these postcards survived the last hundred years or so, they are often in a poor condition, being faded, creased and ripped etc. They have all been Photoshopped to bring them back to life, restoring the fading black and white, repairing the creases and tears, removing mould spots etc. so that they appear almost as they were when new all those years ago. This process is very time consuming, so the lockdown period proved to be the perfect opportunity to tackle it!