The East from the air

Thousands of historic aerial photographs of our region have been released for the first time, offering an alternative perspective on how the East of England has changed over the years. The images have been published online by English Heritage and date as far back as 1919. They come from the Aerofilms Collection, an archive of over one million aerial photographs.

They include Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach in 1928 with a wooden rollercoaster on the seafront.

Lowestoft in 1928 also features, back then a thriving fishing town, now an industrial port.

But not all has changed over the years. This image from 1928 shows Trinity College in Cambridge, almost as it is today.

In 1930 this photo of the Vauxhall Motors factory in Luton was taken. The company moved there in 1905 and now employs more than a thousand people on site.

The archive can be viewed in its entirety at www.britainfromabove.org.uk where there are also a number of "unidentified" images that have left historians stumped.

Members of the public are being asked to help identify the locations by contacting English Heritage through the website.