We’re all used to seeing pictures of the past in stark black and white but now for the first time there’s a chance to see how the past really looked. Our new series takes applies a colourisation process to some familiar scenes in towns in Wales and the borders and transforms them into glorious colour.

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Look at this lovely lot. Like sardines crushed in a tin! Isn’t it amazing how many people you can fit into one boat? And isn’t it equally as amazing how many people a butterfly hunt used to attract back in the day? What a great day out netting and pinning those beautiful little creatures was for all the family. Not that this mob was chasing butterflies. It’s a Sunday school outing from Llanfoist Wharf. Judging by the straw boaters on display it was probably taken about 1900. In hindsight, the commercial use of the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal was relatively short. By the 1850s railways were beginning to assert their dominance. But as you can see, this stretch of man-made water has long been used by those seeking to lose their minds in idle leisure pursuits. (Abergavenny Museum )
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Before the “Ace of Spades” was a song by Motorhead, it was a football team in Abergavenny. Unfortunately, the person who designed their kit didn’t do a very good job of designing the symbol of the famous card and they quickly changed their name to the Abergavenny Wanderers FC. Unfortunately, grassroots football club budgets being what they were, entailed they had to keep the kit for the subsequent three seasons. Here they are pictured in 1894. In a letter to the Abergavenny Chronicle in 1903 a football fan writes, “For blind partisanship, which can see no good in the opposing team, the patrons of soccer in Abergavenny are hard to beat. Booing the referee, yelling criticism, disputing the decisions of the linesmen, and conduct unworthy of true sportsmen are evident.” It’s safe to say his team obviously lost then! (Abergavenny Museum )
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The restoration of the organ is a dying trade, but during his lifetime, Maurice Bent was one of the best at dusting off the old pipes and getting them to blow sweet and loud again. A well-loved personality in the Forest of Dean, Maurice was a former Queen’s Verderer and author of books on both music and local history. He was also an accomplished musician who could play the organ as well as he could restore them. Here he is pictured at some point in the distant past! (Tindle News )