IT is amazing how small the world has become and that’s a good thing for historical researchers, as Ken Pett can testify.

He has done a great deal of the research for the old photographs on the Burton Bradstock village website and has been amazed at the response.

Although now all digitally available on the Burtonbradstockonline website it was at a committee meeting of the Village Society in April 1978 that Len Coles proposed the idea of preserving as much village information as possible in the form of old and new photos, slides, reports, articles etc.

The committee agreed and Mr Coles volunteered to organise such a collection.

Maurice Ouseley’s widow made a significant contribution by donating more than 50 photographs taken by her late husband in the 1930s.

Pictures include many old locals, plus there are photos of most of the various craftsmen of the day from carpenter to smythie, butcher and baker.

There are hundreds of old photographs to view, some from private collections, covering every aspect of village life.

The website itself was a millennium project.

Mr Pett said it was amazing how many and varied the sources were for the old photos on the site.

He was also busy visiting the museums from Lyme Regis to Dorchester to find images of Burton’s past.

He said: “Everywhere we went people were being very helpful.”

Among those was Brad King at the Imperial War Museum, who spent a year on secondment at Bridport Museum.

He wrote an article and gave the village a video clip of troops practising for the Normandy beach landings using a special landing craft with a telescopic ladder. Mr Pett added: “We have had a range of sources that have been many and varied. We have even had emails from Australia identifying family and giving family background.

“It is still a work in progress. There must still be an awful lot of material out there that we haven’t got and haven’t seen that we would love to get.”

Also some of the pictures on the site could do with readers’ help to identify the who, what, why and when of.

If you can help, let us or Mr Pett know at burton.bradstock@burtonbradstock. org.uk