HUNDREDS of photographs depicting life in rural north-west Durham over the past century are going on display.

The exhibition will focus on the area around the village of Delves Lane, near Consett, and takes in the former steel town, along with nearby communities such as Knitsley Mill and Templetown.

Delves Lane was founded in 1921, when the miners' cottages were first built for workers at the nearby Victory Pit.

The exhibition follows the success of an appeal for old photographs by Delves resident Tony Westgarth, who is compiling a series of books on the history of the area.

The first two books in the series have proved a big hit and have nearly sold out, but the pictures keep flooding in.

Mr Westgarth said: "I started out to record some of our past, but the project has just snowballed.

"I have over a thousand pictures now, but I don't think we have got enough room to display them all."

He is mounting as many of the photographs as possible on display boards to go in Delves Lane village hall.

Alongside them, there will also be 12 computers running slide shows, each representing a decade of the 20th Century or a specific town or village. In total, he is hoping to exhibit more than 700 pictures.

These include Knitsley Salem Chapel's Sunday School Anniversary picnic in 1930, and a shot taken in the late 1800s of the blacksmith's cottage in Delves Lane, on the site now occupied by Delves Cottages.

The exhibition was made possible thanks to a £15,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. This has paid for computer equipment to process the pictures and a multi-media projector, along with paying for the publishing of Mr Westgarth's history books.

"I felt strongly that this was something that should be done," he said. "A lot of this history has already been lost, and people seem to get such a lot out of it."

Back to the Future - a Nostalgic Look at Delves Lane and the Surrounding Area, runs at the village hall on Sunday, May 30, and Monday, May 31, 10am until 4pm. Admission is free.

For details, contact (01207) 583174.