Bird's eye View

EARLY AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS SHOW LANDMARKS IN 1930S

- NEIL KEELING

IT IS a view of Britain that was a few years away from being changed for ever. Arthur William Hobart took to the skies to picture the country on the eve of the Second World War.

He captured parks, suburbs, football grounds, industrial plants and seaside resorts, including in Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Lancashire, Merseyside and Cumbria. The collection of 242 black and white photographs is known as the Air Pictures Porthleven Collection.

It provides a snapshot of the land before it was decimated by the Luftwaffe, post-war clearance and reshaped by technological advance.

Among the collection - all pictures taken in the 1930s is an aerial view of Birchfields Park in Rusholme, Manchester; the Duke Street area of Stockport and The Oil Well Engineering Company Works in the town.