A two-year photography project in Barrow has been given funding by the National Lottery.
Signal Film and Media has received the cash from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for Sankey – Lives Through The Lens, which is expected to engage thousands of people across the county.
Lives Through the Lens will start this summer with workshops and masterclasses engaging the local community with the Sankey Photography Archive.
The vast archive was produced by Barrow photographers Edward, Raymond and Eric Sankey over 80 years.
The father and sons documented the social activity of the town from ship launches to parades, pageants, royal visits and street scenes, travelling far and wide capturing Cumbria and Lancashire.
The collection is believed to be the largest of its kind which documents Barrow comprehensively between the years of 1890 and 1970. The Sankey family have donated the entire vast archive in the hope it will be accessible for the local community and future generations.
In September 2023, Signal Film and Media launched the full digitised collection online for the first time.
Since then it has had multiple thousands of views from all over the world engaging people with Barrow’s heritage at www.sankeyphotoarchive.uk.
Later this year, an expansive, creative and hands-on programme of activity will be announced, providing opportunities for both adults and young people to be involved with activities to co-curate and explore the archive such as field visits and archive research sessions, oral history training, filmmaking, photography, creative writing and sound workshops as well as interpretation workshops with artists, exhibitions and more.
