Leek Through the Ages

Neil Collingwood was born in 1956 in Leek, Staffordshire (where he now lives) although most of his life has been spent in Newcastle-under-Lyme. He developed an interest in local history following a period working as a Museum Attendant at Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Museum after obtaining a degree in Applied Biology. He soon discovered the archive collection of old photographs that the Museum held and asked for permission to catalogue them on computer (up to that point there was only a handwritten paper list of about 1,500 photos). After his fixed-term contract ended he remained working as a volunteer archivist at the Museum for about 7 years and catalogued a lot more of the archive besides the photographs. He has had two previous local history photo books published and also an Atlas of the Dragonflies of Staffordshire. He has done many slide-talks on Newcastle-under-Lyme using both old photos and his own and have also delivered a couple of lectures at the Museum on using and dating old photographs to people on local history courses. He is probably now an authority on photos of Newcastle.