THE COOKWORTHY Museum is displaying an exhibition of historic photographs of Kingsbridge and the surrounding villages at Harbour House.

The exhibition, titled ‘Then and Now’, is the Cookworthy Museum’s fifth exhibition at Harbour House, and draws from their extension collection of more than 15,000 local archive images, paired with contemporary pictures. The exhibition gives the museum an opportunity to show some of their collections to a difference audience.

These ‘Then and Now’ displays have proved popular over the years, and the 2016 exhibition will honour local volunteer and photographer Tim Noyce who was instrumental in setting up previous exhibitions and who died in 2013. The exhibition will also include extracts from early cine film of the area, including some of Kingsbridge in 1935.

The photographs highlight some of the changes over the past 100 years, with a particular emphasis on images of Kingsbridge shops and businesses.

There is a current project to update the museum’s site records of properties in Fore Street, so part of the exhibition will be based on Kingsbridge shops and their development over the years. Another element will be a display of some seldom-seen artefacts related to Kingsbridge, giving visitors the chance to touch some local history as well as seeing it.

There are also some fascinating photographs of local characters, and poignant images of the Trout Sisters in the old village of Hallsands.

For fans of the Gazette, there is a display of vintage caricatures of local people from the late 1960s and early 1970s, skilfully drawn by Neil White.

The Kingsbridge Cookworthy Museum opened in 1972 and is situated in the 17th century old grammar school towards the top of Fore Street. It is run as a community museum for the benefit of Kingsbridge and the South Hams, and the collections concentrate on the social history of the town and the general area. As well as permanent and temporary exhibitions on site treasures from the museum are brought out into the community whenever possible, bringing collections to the attention of new audiences.

The exhibition is open at Harbour House this week, until Sunday, September 25, from 10am until 5pm, and 10am to 4pm on Sunday. Entry is free.