Britain From Above, England Collection, 1919-1953
Want to picture the town where your ancestor grew up, or take a peek at the factory where your relative worked? Or perhaps even see the seaside resort your family member used to visit? Explore the changing face of 20th century England through this wonderfully varied collection of aerial photographs.
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Want to picture the town where your ancestor grew up, or take a peek at the factory where your relative worked? Or perhaps even see the seaside resort your family member used to visit? Explore the changing face of 20th century England through this wonderfully varied collection of aerial photographs.
Learn more about these records
This is a collection of over 82,000 photographs that capture rural, suburban, urban, coastal and industrial scenes across England, taken from 1919 to 1953.
You can search the photographs by location, keyword, year or reference, if you have one.
Each photograph is geolocated with latitude and longitude details and contains notes that give further context. For example, photograph EW020399 of Beauchief, Sheffield, describes ‘housing in snow around Folds Crescent.’
Searching with a keyword allows you to unlock different sites of interest. For example, a search for ‘golf’ will return results like South Bedfordshire Golf Club in Luton, or searching for ‘prison’ will bring you photographs like that of the prison and Court House in Knutsford.
The collection has particularly robust depictions of England’s industrial history, with factories often described with the name of the concern, such as Stockport’s Christy and Co. Hillgate Hat Manufactory and Bushbury’s Goodyear Tyre and Rubber Company.
These photographs are from the AFL03 Aerofilms collection, held by Historic England. They were created by Aerofilms Ltd., a pioneering air survey company that was set up in 1919 by pilots Francis Lewis Wills (1893-1980) and Claude Grahame-White (1879-1959).
Having served with the Royal Navy Air Force during the First World War, Wills was the company’s managing director, whilst Grahame-White was a trained engineer who became a disciple of flying during aviation’s early years.
Aerofilms Ltd. became Britain’s first commercial aerial photography company, with the first photo captured by the organisation being of the London Country Club in HeHendon, taken on 26 July 1919 (EPW000001), the original home of Aerofilms.
From 1921 onwards, Aerofilms pioneered vertical photography for surveying and mapping. In 1925, the Aircraft Operating Company took over Aerofilms, with the operation being expanded at Hendon.
During the 1930s, Aerofilms excelled in photogrammetry, the science of mapping from aerial photographs. This expertise meant that the Ordnance Survey was a prominent early client of the group.
Aerial photos were taken by Aerofilms from an oblique angle, rather than being taken directly from above. Such oblique photography gives viewers a wonderful sense of space and meant that there were popularly adapted for postcards.
It was not all smooth flying, however. Aerofilms in the 1920s rode close to flouting the new Air Navigation Act for flying close over towns and cities, whilst in the 1930s the company gained unwanted attention, in the mistaken belief that photographs of country houses were being supplied to cat burglars.
Indeed, one image captured in 1937 of Taxal Lodge, Whaley Bridge (EPW054325), shows the words ‘Go away. Who is it? Drop note’ on the lawn.
However, the expertise of Aerofilms was to form an important part of the war effort during the Second World War. The company’s staff and state-of-the-art equipment formed part of the Allied Photographic Interpretation Unit at RAF Medmenham.
During this time, Aerofilms caught the attention of shipping and aviation executive Sir Percy Hunting, with the organisation becoming part of the Hunting Group of Companies in 1942.
After the war, Aerofilms continued to specialise in oblique photography, with post-war redevelopment and industrial expansion keeping the company busy. It would change hands several times throughout the latter half of the 20th century, with Norwegian company Blom taking charge. Blom sold the historic Aerofilms oblique library to English Heritage, the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland in June 2007.
A unique aerial photographic archive, the Aerofilms collection represents a rare opportunity to explore England as it was, across five decades of change and transformation.
Findmypast has worked with Historic England to license the Aerofilms collection. The preservation and the digitisation of the collection was made possible thanks to the Britain from Above project.
The Britain from Above project was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (now known as The National Lottery Heritage Fund) and support from The Foyle Foundation, as well as from other donors.