Wyken News: Unseen family images uncovered in Coventry paper's archive
BBCDozens of items relating to the archive of a local newspaper serving a city suburb have been uncovered.
The negatives, letterpress blocks, glass plates and photographs are from the Wyken News, believed to have been produced and distributed in Coventry during the 1960s.
Scott Duffin, who found the archive, said it would be added to his collection of city memorabilia.
Previously unseen family images have been identified as part of the find.
The 37-year-old from Whitley, who helps run the Visit Historic Coventry Facebook group, said he believed the newspaper ceased production in the 1970s and the collection "got put away before the printing stopped".
"I don't think it's been touched since it was wrapped up until today," he said.
The pictures are of people and places from around the city.
He said: "We have churches, vicars and priests, also people doing car washes in the 1960s, various buildings and some images from the city centre."
He invited members of the group to an event in an attempt to learn more about the publication.
Wyken resident, Gill McConville, said she, along with her husband, had been able to recognise quite a few people in the photographs, including a picture with family members she had never seen before.
"I was helping set up and opened up about a dozen of these little packages, and then opened up one with my late brothers' pictures with their scout group," she said.
"The photograph, from about 1964, had my two brothers, my husband's best man and his brother on it, and the main picture of a friend getting his scout award," she explained.
"My brother Pete, who was 18-months older than me, died back in 1990 and my oldest brother Steve, he died in 2018.
"It was a bit of a surprise, and obviously the heart-strings went, but it was lovely, and not too emotional".
The collection had helped "bring back all the memories", she added.
Mr Duffin said the Facebook group allowed him to share his passion for the city and he was keen for people with any knowledge of the paper to get in touch.
"Anyone that knows more about the Wyken News, if you had family members involved or owned a copy of it, that would be especially interesting," he added.
He said he had had a discussion with Dr Ben Kyneswood from Coventry University's Coventry Digital project, to enable the archive to be digitised and made available to the wider public to view.
"It would be online and really lovely for everyone to be able to see it," he said.
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