Good progress has been made with the theatre archive, and the majority of what has been collected is now up on the website (hblt.co.uk), with only around 200 more images to upload.
If you go to Archive on the main menu, then click on Timeline on the drop down menu, you will be able to see the results of this work. There you can see photos and documents relating to more than two-thirds of the plays the theatre has presented in the last 95 years.
If you then click on Images, you can view separate sections on performances, posters, programmes, sets and theatre venues, which illustrate the history and artistry of the theatre during its century of existence.
The drop down menu also includes a small Video and Audio collection, which we will be adding to in time. An Aknowledgements page has been added recently, to thank the many people who have donated material to our archive.
We appreciate the images are of variable quality, as many of the early photos were taken by amateur photographers, and have deteriorated with age. Great pains have been taken to improve them as much as possible, using the full resources of the Pennine Horizons Digital archive. High resolution images of the collection are preserved in their archive at the Birchcliffe Centre, Hebden Bridge (www.pennineheritage.org.uk).
There are noticeable gaps in the collection, which we would like your help to fill. If you’ve got any photos from any era, that you are prepared to loan, we will take good care of them, and return them to you once we’ve copied them.
We would particularly like to rectify some glaring omissions from recent times: Godfrey’s Last Stand (2015); Straight and Narrow (2011); The Devil at Midnight (2010); Snake in the Grass (2006); and (a little further back) Hindle Wakes (1994). If you were in one of these plays, dig out your photos, and contact: vaughanleslie@hotmail.com, without delay!
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