Blackburn pensioner spots 70-year-old photo of her gran on TV's Flog It!

Blackburn College’s Talbot Archive Project, which exhibits historical photographs from the area, had featured on an episode of BBC’s Flog It! screen last month.

It was while watching the episode that Helen Bond, 83, of Blackburn, was amazed to recognise a photograph of her grandmother Margaret Ann Bond.

Daughter-in-law Monika Kent was quick to contact the college for a photograph, where staff were happy to oblige with a good quality replica.

Director of the Talbot Archive Project Peter Graham said: “It is so important that we are able to do this and make connections with the family of the people in the images. The images should always serve the community for which they were created. In essence, it’s like the photos are going home.”

Margaret Ann Bond, who died in 1953, was a well-known presence on Blackburn Market where she sold shrimps for 66 years and inspired the poem ‘Th’ Owd Shrimp Lass’ which was written for her funeral.

The photograph, titled Southport Sea Basket, was one of many taken by renowned Blackburn photographer Wally Talbot, one-time staff photographer at the Lancashire Telegraph.

The archive was set up by Blackburn College and Blackburn Library in 2016 and aims to preserve and promote Mr Talbot’s works and preserve historic images of Blackburn life.

The Southport Sea Basket has been one of several archival photographs that the project has managed to connect with the subject’s surviving family members.

The collection, which includes 68,000 negatives, chronicles life in Blackburn and spans all the way from the 1930s to the 1990s and includes photography by Wally Talbot’s son Howard.

The father and son team captured many aspects of life in east Lancashire through their photography and the ultimate goal of the project is to create a Blackburn heritage centre which will provide research opportunities to students and townspeople.

Search for the Talbot Archive Project on Facebook to find the group.