THOUSANDS of photographic images, colour and black and white, from Tavistock's not too distant past are being preserved, thanks to the work of members of the local history society and other volunteers.

The Thorington Archive is named after former Times press photographer Jim Thorington who 'captured' on camera the people, places and events from the early 1960s to the late 1990s.

Thanks to the Tavistock and District Local History Society and to Jim's widow Shirley, who handed them his huge collection of 80,000 prints and negatives, they are now in the process of being digitally stored at the Tavistock Museum at Court Gate for present and future generations to benefit from — a fitting legacy of his work.

Kevin Dickens, a retired history teacher from Tavistock, told the Times: 'This archive is unique and of great value as I suppose it's a mosaic of many thousands of parts which contributes to the community's collective memory.

'It's a searchable archive as the majority of the images come with information and dates.

'We learn a lot incidentally about the changing face of local towns and villages and of the ways in which people earned a living, amused themselves, were educated and set out to help one another.

'The archive will be of value to future generations in ways we probably can't guess. We can't be sure what will interest them about us and we can't know what new techniques there will be, apart from text searches, to interrogate archives. It will eventually be, not one snapshot, but a hundred thousand snapshots of West Devon life across the span of a generation.'

The archive moved to Court Gate in 2003 from where it was stored in Drake Road, thanks to a £3,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery, which enabled funding for storage and computer hardware.

Thanks to the efforts of members of the local history society, Tavistock Museum and other volunteers, more than 11,500 film envelopes, 3,000 postcards and several hundred prints have been scanned and catalogued, complete with basic text to describe each image.

Altogether, between 75,000 to 80,000 images have been processed, including invaluable ones from the Boy Scouts and Robey Trust archives.

The volunteers for this enormous project include Tony Dunk, J B Hutchinson, James Tailyour, Nick Jenkin, Fran McMurray, Frances Spencer, Jon Jones, Ken Gilbert, Joanna Kelly, Harriet Cooper, Nick Aldous, Richard Alford, Jarod Statham and Julian Mildren.

The thousands of strips of photographic 35mm and 120mm negatives taken by Jim Thorington are scanned and put into the archive and then into a polypropylane hanging sleeve with a corresponding number. Photographic expert Sara Hill visited the archive to make sure that the original images have been stored correctly so they are not damaged.

The images include Jim's photographs covering the everyday local news events and dramatic pictures of the weather, including floods, bad weather and incidents involving the emergency services.

There is everything from all the local celebrations such as carnivals, visits to retirement homes including Harewood House, sponsored walks, Tavistock Lions, Rotary Club and other charities — everyday local events.

Local politicians, including ones of Tavistock MP Michael Heseltine, are featured. But it is not just Tavistock as Jim captured moments of life from both sides of the River Tamar.

Kevin said: 'By looking at the images you pick up a lot of subtle information about the times and fashions and how things have changed.

'Who, for example, collects piles of pennies now for charity?

'There are images which would probably be a little alien to this present generation — there is one of a picture of the St John Ambulance members marching past the Bedford Hotel. It is very militaristic, with everybody taking it very seriously, even though the person taking the salute was stood on a tatty old orange box.

'There is also a rare picture of the popular Cosy Café in West Street, where many former Tavistock Comprehensive School pupils will remember hanging out.

'Nowadays, with the growth of social media and mobile phones, we are awash with images. These images of the 1960s and 1970s depict a Tavistock and time very different to the next generation.

'If they are catalogued and made accessible there is one big plus that there are people out there who are alive now that can help us identify those in the pictures — that will not always be the case as those alive from that time are getting fewer.'

'I should point out the tremendous help and support given by both the Tavistock and District Local History Society and Tavistock Museum and all the volunteers; without their support, the project would not have been possible.'

Julian Mildren, one of the volunteers, said: 'Without cataloging this collection it would be a great loss to Tavistock as it would have been a period of our local social history gone to waste.

'These images taken by Jim are a legacy to the town, along with those by other photographers such as James Bird and Ernie Knape, and are a rich store of precious memories that are accessible for the public to enjoy.'

The images are available to the public by appointment and during normal Tavistock Museum opening hours.

For more information or to volunteer with the archive, please email [email protected]">[email protected]