A 'VISUAL feast' of images of Victorian North Craven is available online thanks to the efforts of volunteers and a £50,000 grant from the Art Fund.

For the first time, the Horner Collection of around 2,000 images owned by the North Craven Building Preservation Trust, will be accessible to all, for free, whether for research purposes, or just out of curiosity.

The collection was bought by the trust, which also owns Settle Folly, home to the Museum of North Craven Life, in 2021 with support from the V&A Purchase Fund and a crowdfunding campaign that raised more than £5,000.

The photographs, from the Victorian era up to the 20th century, were taken by the Horner family who ran a photography studio in Settle and capture the changing faces and places of the town and the surrounding areas for nearly 100 years. The images are now part of the collection at The Folly museum.

The online access was made possible by a £50,000 Reimagine grant from the Art Fund, which the trust used to set up the Through A New Lens project allowing it to research, describe, digitise and display the collection in a permanent exhibition at The Folly.

This involved a dedicated team of volunteers working alongside a consultant photographic historian to catalogue the photographs, scan them, and identify any conservation issues.

When the project began, the museum team estimated around 1,000 glass plate and film negatives were contained in the collection. During the digitisation process, they discovered it was double that.

The images capture historic moments from construction of Giggleswick School Chapel during Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897, contrast local farming landscapes with those dedicated to industry, and capture the crowds at Settle Station as volunteers left to join Kitchener’s army in 1915. There are also weddings, fairs and community events.

The process of re-housing, scanning and cataloguing has been completed by a dedicated team of volunteers, under the guidance of Damian Hughes, a photographic historian.

The Horner exhibition opened in September 2024 and will run at least until the end of 2025. A permanent exhibition exploring the collection in more detail is planned in the future.

Caitlin Greenwood, heritage development officer, said “We’re so excited to finally share the online catalogue with everyone – we know so many people have been anxiously waiting for it. It’s been a real joy to see the volunteers discover so many amazing photographs, and we’re so excited for the public to see them, too."

John Dickson, Horner Collection volunteer, said “Two years spent describing and cataloguing the contents of the Horner Collection- and what a collection of images. From snowy landscapes to marching soldiers, town squares and buildings to lofty fells. A visual feast!”

Rachel Rowe, Horner Collection volunteer, said “The Horner photographic collection provides an invaluable and wonderful time capsule of local life, effortlessly transporting us back over a century and a half.

"The archive is eclectic in content: severe weather events, the total solar eclipse of June 1927, everyday activities such as farming, trades, schooling, and religion, developments in local infrastructure - quarries, roads, railways, bridges and buildings, the local landscape above and below ground, including the exploration of caves, Royal Coronations, the building of Giggleswick School Chapel, but also domestic life and revolutionary time-saving appliances such as washing machines and electric cookers."

She added: "The archive holds such a wide range of images - there is something for everyone."

The online collection is free to access and can be found  at: https://hub.catalogit.app/13427