A bird’s eye view of Herefordshire’s past will be on display in an exhibition celebrating the work of pioneering aerial photographer.

Donovan C Wilson was one of Hereford’s foremost photographers from the 1950s until the 1970s but had an extra string to his bow that his competitors lacked. Building on his enthusiasm for flying gliders, and with the assistance of a former Spitfire pilot, he used a special ex-RAF camera to capture aerial views of Herefordshire and the West of England.

The resulting images are remarkably clear and detailed and open a window on the county’s recent past.

Senior Archivist for Herefordshire Council, Rhys Griffith, said: “Donovan’s images are a hauntingly vivid record of Herefordshire from above. They let us gaze on a world that is within living memory and yet changed almost beyond recognition.”

The exhibition is at Herefordshire Archive and Records Centre.

Volunteers at HARC painstakingly digitized nearly 3,500 negatives and selected ones to go on show, including views of Hereford railway station in the age of steam, the building of Greyfriars Bridge and a busy streetscape of Leominster in the 1950s.

The free exhibition runs from 30 April until 28 June, 9am – 5pm, Monday to Friday, and features a digital touch table which allows images to be looked at in great detail.

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