Images snapped by Arthur William Hobart, who leant out of a biplane to produce pictures of life in the interwar period, have been digitised and released.
The photographs capture factories, people moving about on horse-drawn vehicles as well as in motorised ones, and rivers teeming with working boats. It's less than a century ago, but shows a very different England than we know today.
There are striking images of industrial sites hemmed in by the terraces that housed their employees, and scenes of the British seaside that look a lot more genteel and less crowded than some of today’s brash resorts.
Hobart was born in 1882 in London, and worked as a baker, commercial traveller and draper’s clerk before turning to aerial photography around 1920. He was commissioned by the construction industry, industrial sectors and the press, but also took pictures to be sold as postcards to people who were intrigued by a view of their country from a new perspective.
His body of work features 242 images showing national landmarks, towns and cities, industrial sites, construction projects, cliffs and beaches, documenting the era between the two world wars.
Happily, Historic England has now released pictures from Hobart’s Air Pictures Portleven Collection for all to enjoy, after organising and digitising them.