Unknown sailor with two girls, probably from Madeley area. Date unknown. Picture taken from the Bartlam collection website

Cinefilm and up to 3,000 rare black and white pictures which sat on the shelf of a Madeley shop for 50 years have been saved for posterity – now can you help to catalogue them?

A team of local historians want the help of the public in identifying people and occasions depicted in the photographs, which were taken in Madeley and the surrounding area from the early 1900s.

Local historians Alan Heighway, from St Georges, and Pete Wilson, from Madeley, with the help of Shelagh Lewis from the Madeley Living History Project, were successful in obtaining a lottery grant for £10,000 to save between 2,500 and 3,000 black and white negatives and cine film.

The photographs were taken by Charles and Kathleen Bartlam at their Court Street, Madeley, studio, and in the local area, while the cine films were made by their son, Christopher Bartlam.

The negatives, which had been stored on a shelf in the old shop since about 1950, were destined for the  skip, but were saved by Alan.

Over the following two years he and Pete scanned them into their computers.

“We realised from the start that these negatives were important to the local area, and Shelagh Lewis was a great help in getting the grant from the lottery,” said Alan.

Unknown girl in pattern dress, probably from Madeley area.

“The negatives are now being scanned in professionally at Shropshire Archives to whom, when finished, they are going to be donated, and are to be stored there for future generations to see,” said Alan.

“The Bartlams were prolific photographers in Madeley for around 30 years and Charles and Kath Bartlam are both lying in the same unmarked grave in Madeley churchyard.

“Part of the grant money is to supply a headstone on their grave.”

Photos that are ready can now be viewed on a new website, www.bartlam-madeley.com, which went live this week.