Bird’s eye view puts focus on high points of history

But the fascinating archive of more than 15,000 images which dates back almost 100 years to the end of the First World War was in grave danger of being lost forever until a painstaking conservation and cataloguing process was undertaken.

The collection, which represents one of the earliest and most significant archives of aerial photography, is today being launched online for the first time.

While English Heritage experts were unable to identify all of the pictures, the Britain from Above website has interactive features to allow users the chance to add information about the images, share personal memories, download the photographs and customise their own themed galleries.

English Heritage’s Head of Archive, Anna Eavis, claimed the collection “embodies all that is exciting” about aerial photography.

She added: “What is equally remarkable is the skill of the expert staff in England, Scotland and Wales who have saved and conserved these vulnerable negatives and prints and converted them into the high resolution images you see on screen today.

“We are pleased that the items have been given safe, long-term homes, and that each of the organisations involved has been enriched immensely by their addition.”

The collection is part of an archive of more than a million British aerial photographs taken between 1919 and 2006, many of them by pilots and photographers who were veterans of the First World War.

Some of the images on the earliest plate glass negatives were so old and fragile that they were close to being lost forever.

The online archive of photographs, taken between 1919 and 1953, come from the Aerofilms Collection that was acquired for the nation in 2007 when the company faced financial difficulties. With the help of the English Heritage and the Royal Commissions on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland and Wales, thousands of photos were digitised and the public can access the images for free on the online archive.

Among the most celebrated images is a photograph of Sheffield Wednesday’s 4-2 triumph over West Bromwich Albion in the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium on April 27, 1935.

The Cierva autogyro which is captured in the foreground was flown by Scotland Yard, experimenting with air observation to monitor crowds.

Highlights from the collection include the first boxing match at Wembley Stadium in 1924, crowds on the banks of the River Clyde watching the first voyage of the newly-built RMS Queen Mary in 1936, and the Thames Flood of 1947.

Other photographs show Blackpool Tower in July 1920, St Paul’s Cathedral from the following year and a cliff-top campsite in Crimdon Park in County Durham, in 1946.

Rebecca Bailey, the head of education and outreach at the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, said: “We hope that people today will be able to immerse themselves in the past through the new website, adding their own thoughts and memories to this remarkable collection.”

By the end of the project in 2014, 95,000 images taken between 1919 and 1953 will be available online, at www.britainfromabove.org.uk