A VOLUNTEER curated exhibition launches in town’s museum showcasing unseen photographs through the eyes of the town’s most famous photographers.

Signal Film and Media staff along with Sankey volunteers invites visitors to explore the brand new exhibition ‘Sankeys: Extraordinary and Everyday’ held at the Dock Museum, Barrow until January, 9 2022.

The exhibition is the fruits of the uncovering photographs of 20th Century life in the North-West through the eyes of the Sankey family from Barrow who documented their time in the area and further a field.

Project manger for Signal Film and Media, Julia Parks said this project has been on going for two and a half years.

She said: “Edward and Raymond Sankey were a father duo who documented their life in Barrow and the surrounding.

“Four years ago we found out that their whole collection was still in their families basement and myself and my team have worked towards creating a project to uncover this archive for people to see and enjoy.

“Loads of volunteers have put their knowledge and expertise into cataloguing the pictures and telling the stories connecting them with the picture, curating this show.”

Visitors can take a trip down memory lane and see over 100 images catalogued by the team of black and white historic barrow, street scenes of places that are no longer there and some that are, portraits of people, children playing and much more.

Alongside historic images, new artwork by students at local primary schools and the South Cumbria Pupil referral unit will be displayed. Activity packs for children and a collage table for all will be in place during the exhibition and people are invited to create new artworks to add to a growing display over the 3-months the exhibition will be on show.

Barrow’s Mayor Helen Wall attended the private viewing and in her speech said: “The story of Signal Film and Media and the Sankey family for donating the collection to us to have in Barrow for people who are interested in to connect and to help bring out the creativity in other people is so important.

“These photos help people connect with history and gets them thinking ‘oh my grandad worked there’, looking at these sort of images are good for our mental health.

“Thank you very much to everyone who made this project happen.”

The ‘Sankeys: Extraordinary and Everyday’ exhibition is part of a bigger project which will be donated to Cumbria Archive to preserve the photographs.

Visit the Dock Museum from 11am – 4pm Wednesday, Sunday.