The Express & Star’s bid for funding to digitise its photo archive has been submitted to the Heritage Lottery Fund.

More than 100 groups and individuals have rallied to back our bid for lottery funding, which would enable the entire Express & Star photographic archive to be viewed over the internet.

Editorial executive Tom Graham writes: The Express & Star’s bid for Heritage Lottery Fund money to preserve its photo archive is a major step towards ensuring this priceless collection is available for future generations.

The Express & Star is planning to make some 750,000 photographs taken over the last 139 years onto a website available to the general public – and it is looking for local people to offer their support.