Aerial images of Cornwall taken during the 1930s have been published today by Historic England.
Now made public, the Air Pictures 'Portleven Collection' is a unique collection of interwar aerial photos taken by little known aerial photographer, Arthur William Hobart, and newly digitised by the Historic England Archive.
The collection takes its name from a misspelling of Porthleven in Cornwall where Hobart lived.
It features 242 black and white aerial images showing the national landmarks, towns, industrial sites, construction projects and seaside resorts of 1930s interwar England.
Locations are focused on London, the south east and south west of England, and feature everything from national landmarks such as St Paul’s Cathedral and Salisbury Cathedral, to industrial sites including Battersea Power Station and Smith’s Docks in North Tyneside.
There are also sports grounds, new housing estates and major national infrastructure such as Twickenham Bridge.
The only images from Cornwall are of Newquay’s harbour and beaches.
In the early 20th century, Newquay was the most fashionable and popular seaside resort in Cornwall – and whilst the town was considered uninteresting, it could offer fine hotels, promenades and extensive beaches.
The content of the photographs reflects the market demands of the time. Photographs for postcards were Hobart’s largest market, but municipal authorities and the press were also principal clients.
Photographs would have been taken on a commission basis, as well as speculatively.
Targeted for their unique selling point, of providing views that people would not have been seen before, Hobart also appears to have been tapping into the emerging demand for aerial photos from other sources such as the construction industry and industrial sectors.
The collection forms a part of a larger and mostly undiscovered body of Arthur William Hobart’s aerial photography work, thought to be around 10,000 images. Born in 1882 in London, Arthur William Hobart was an early commercial aerial photographer who started in the business around 1920.
To date no service record can be found for Hobart.However, many early commercial aerial photographers had served during the First World War in aerial-related roles, and prior to the First World War he worked as a baker, commercial traveller and a draper’s clerk.
In the 1930s, aerial photography was a young industry that emerged after the First World War. This way of capturing new developments and industry of the time provides a fascinating and informative insight into a changing country.
The collection shows how the business evolved to capture the interests and needs of this interwar decade.
Duncan Wilson, chief executive of Historic England, said: “Flicking through these photos lets you take flight over 1930s England, to see the changing face of the country in the interwar period.
“Many of us will not have seen so many well-known landmarks and sites from this fresh perspective provided by aerial photography.
“We are the guardians of the largest national collection of aerial images in the country and hope that releasing this collection helps inspire people to learn more about their local history through our online Aerial Photography Explorer tool.”
More than 480,000 images from 1919 to the present day have been added to Historic England’s Aerial Photograph Explorer platform, covering nearly 30% (c.15,000 square miles) of England.
It allows people immediate digital access to its nationally important collection of aerial photographs to discover the changing face of England’s urban and rural landscapes over the last 100 years.
The addition of the Portleven Collection is part of Historic England’s work to expand its Aerial Photographer Explorer platform, as more of the six million aerial images in Historic England Archive are digitised.
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