Previously unseen photographs will be shown in an online photography exhibition to mark the 80th Anniversary of the Barrow Blitz.
The monumental event took place in 1941, with the heaviest bombing happening between May 3 and May 10.
Edward Sankey and his sons Raymond and Eric were prolific photographers of Furness, Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire.
The Sankey Family Photography Collection is a unique record of life in the area during the latter years of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th.
This exhibition will give an insight into some of the ways the Barrow Blitz affected the town, showing buildings that are no longer standing, and reflect on the many changes that have taken place in Barrow due to World War II.
The exhibition has been entirely curated by an enthusiastic and continually growing team of local volunteers, who have been working with Signal Film and Media to research and catalogue the vast archive.
They present an exploration of Barrow before and after the bombs hit, oral histories of people who lived during the blitz and an opportunity to remember the people killed during the bombings.
“The volunteer researchers who have been working on the project have brought together a whole range of images, stories and sounds,” said Julia Parks, project manager.
“They started by looking at the buildings the Sankeys documented that were later lost in the Blitz.
“This developed into revisiting some of these places and delving into other collections which held photographs of the damage caused. We’ve also recorded new oral testimonies from people who were living in the town at the time and found a number of diary entries from Nella Last and many others too.”
The exhibition will go live at www.signalfilmandmedia.com on May 3.