At its Annual General Meeting last October, the Langport & District History Society decided to take a few steps towards making local history more accessible.

Their monthly talks are now reported in local news outlets, and are archived on two local websites and www.curryrivel.org.uk and www.langport-area.info/index.htm.  They also started advertising for anyone with old photographs or postcards of the Langport area to come forward.  Thanks to the generosity of a few local people, particularly Jo Stradling, Robert Webb and Bob Perry, the History Society now has a growing collection of several hundred digital images.  Some of them are well known local scenes, often reproduced, but others are more unusual.  In many cases the names of people in the photographs have been forgotten, but by publishing some of them as ‘Mystery Photos’ in the Langport Leveller, quite a few names have already been recovered, and will now be recorded for future reference.

One of the benefits of putting more information about local history on the internet is that you can reach a wider audience.  Earlier this year the Society was contacted by someone living in Houston, Texas.  Her father had been stationed in Langport during the last war, and she sent images of three local postcards for the collection.  One of them was already in the collection, but the other two were new to them, so they were delighted to have them.

A selection of images will be shown after the History Society’s next AGM on 3 October in Langport Library.  Visitors are welcome to come to the slide show, which will start at 8 pm.  New members are, of course, always welcome to join the Society.  For details please contact the Chairman, Christine Jessop tel: 01458 251606 email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .