All of the photographs on this page have been taken from the Britain from Above website, and are copyrighted to English Heritage.

The collection of over 95,000 photographs from around the country was based on a series of more than 1.25 million photographs taken by Aerofilms Ltd, a pioneering air survey company set up in 1919 by First World War veterans Francis Lewis Wills and Claude Grahame-White. The photographs on the site date from 1919 to 1953.

In our area, the emphasis appears to have been firmly on photographs of industrial sites, so many parts of the area are not covered, but the photos which have been preserved make fascinating viewing.

Click on the photos for a larger version, along with notes on the photograph, but the detail is still quite difficult to distinguish. However, if you follow the photograph reference number below the picture, you will be taken to the original site, where you can zoom in on parts of the photograph to obtain a slightly better view. It is also possible to buy copies of the photographs from their website.

Heanor, 1923

Shipley Collieries, 1926

Heanor, 1928

Smalley opencast mining, 1935 to 1950

There are over 100 photographs taken during the opencasting at Smalley, with visits from Aerofilms in 1947, 1948, and 1949. There are also a few “before” shots, taken in 1935, and some 1950 photos showing the area after it had been restored.

Langley Mill, 1950