FOR the next two months, Darlington library is hosting a truly splendid exhibition of old photographs of the town.

They are from the collection of Owen Wicksteed, who died in 1999, leaving about 500 photos which he had taken since his arrival in Darlington in the early 1930s.

Mr Wicksteed was born in Northamptonshire in 1904, grew up in Wales, trained to be dentist in Edinburgh and then settled in Darlington, opening his dentist's surgery at 5, Victoria Road, where he worked until his retirement in 1971.

In his spare time, he enjoyed model ship building, making jewellery and taking photos which captured the changing face of his adopted town in the mid 20th Century.

Quite a lot of the images in the exhibition have not been seen before, and none of them have been available digitally. However, they are now being added to the library's Flickr page which can be accessed through the Local and Family History page of the library website at www2.darlington.gov.uk.

To see them in their full glory, visit the exhibition in the local history section of the library. It runs until March 31.