Stepping back in time for photo exhibition

Artists from Sand In Your Eye have recreated nine photographs from Hebden Bridge during World War One to allow people to connect with the past.

An exhibition, which is part of Hebden Royd’s commemoration of the Battle of the Somme, will open in the memorial gardens at 11am tomorrow (Saturday) and will then be transferred to the Town Hall courtyard for a week.

People are invited on a walk from the memorial gardens from noon to some of the locations with the artists such as Hardcastle Craggs and Gibson Mill.

The photographer Jamie Wardley said: “The idea is that people are able to stand in the same place with the same pose as someone did around 100 years ago who would have had to face the realities of World War One and the aftermath of the Battle of the Somme.

“Where possible we invited people of a similar occupation to take part such as the Landlord of the White Lion from 100 years ago and today so they really are able to draw direct parallels.”

Tom Duerden was photographed in front of his familys hardware shop in Mytholmroyd.

He said “Whlist posing I was trying to imagine how the man in the photograph would have greeted his customers 100 years ago and what they would have talked about.”

“When standing in the same spot people are really able to connect with the people of the past that lived their lives as you and I do.”

The project was commissioned by Hebden Royd Council and the original photographs were supplied by photo archiving charity Pennine Horizons.

For more information visit www.steppingintothepast.co.uk