A ‘treasure trove’ of historic Burnham-On-Sea photos and documents from the past 140 years are set to go on display next Spring in a new history archive at the town’s community centre.
Thousands of photos, postcards, slides and maps in the collection of local historian and author Bob Thomas, 85, have been gifted to the community, saving them for future reference.
Bob, pictured with team who are archiving and storing the material at the community centre, has moved into a care home and there was concern that his huge trove of historical photos and records were at risk of being thrown away or the collection being broken up.
His family spoke with Burnham Community Centre about hosting ‘The Thomas Archive’ and it was quickly agreed to take this on.
“Many of the photos were taken by Bob and his father Winston, and they include 4000 slides of local scenes, postcards, maps, glass plate photos from the early 1900s, plus newspapers back to 1880s,” says John Strickland from North Sedgemoor Local History Group. “It is an exciting collection that brings Burnham’s history to life.”
The volunteers at Burnham Community Centre hope to open the new history archive for public access in May next year once all the items have been securely curated and logged for easy access. John adds that next year will be the 40th anniversary of the local history group and so the timing of the launch will coincide.
Ken Hindle, the centre’s President, says: “It’s a wonderful treasure trove of local history that provides many wonderful memories and stories from over the decades. We hope it will help with history and education in the community for many years to come.”
The community centre’s chair, David Norton, told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “We are delighted to be hosting the material here – I will say that I had my reservations initially about storing such a lot of old material.”
“However, when I got to see it all, I quickly realised how important a collection it is to preserve. Generations of people are in this collection – it’s a real archive of the town’s history – and we hope to display some of it online in the future.”
Those supporting the project have been thanked, including North Sedgemoor Local History Group, the community centre, Peter Jackson, Positive Wealth Creation, and Phil and Sue Harvey.
David added that anyone with further old Burnham photos and material can gift it to the centre’s history archive by getting in touch at burnhamcc@outlook.com to arrange collection.
