No doubt we are all familiar with seeing old maps and modern satellite photos of the areas in which our ancestors lived, but how about old aerial photos? Someone at work has just shown me a website they have just stumbled across belonging to the Geography Research Centre at Sussex University. They have put on-line a whole load of aerial photos taken by the RAF of Sussex in the 1940s.Brighton is covered from Woodingdean and North Rottingdean across to Shoreham. They have also covered a large area of mid Sussex, including Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath, Cuckfield and Horsham, extending north to just south of Crawley. Notes in the borders of the Brighton photos show that they were taken on 19 Apr 1946, by a plane from 138 squadron. The sharpness and quality of these photos is truly amazing, a testament no doubt to the quality of the optics that would have been developed for wartime reconnaissance. You can still see signs of wartime activity in Brighton, such as gun emplacement sites and rows of Nissen huts on the Level. It's fascinating to see the narrow streets of the old Brighton slums that were demolished in the fifties and sixties to make way for the town centre development. Of course, a period street map will be needed to try and identify these streets. Also interesting is the amount of open downland to be seen that is now under modern housing. The site of my own house is just farmland on the Downs above Portslade. They also have photos taken from the 1950s to the 1990s, but these are not yet on line. The site is at: HYPERLINK "http://www.geog.sussex.ac.uk/grc/info/airphotos-historic/"http://www.geog.s ussex.ac.uk/grc/info/airphotos-historic/ Happy browsing! Jerry white No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.19.7/1234 - Release Date: 20/01/2008 14:15