LIFE in the Ribble Valley has been chronicled in a fascinating new book which features evocative photographs of days gone by.

Clitheroe: Photographic Memories includes around 100 images taken from the historic Frith Collection and covers life in and around Clitheroe over the last 150 years.

John Buck, the managing director of the Francis Frith Collection said: "The collection is a unique archive of photographs that capture the scenes that would have been part of every day life for our parents and grandparents.

"The photographs and individual commentaries that make up our local books provoke curiosity in the young and evoke personal memories in the older generation."

Francis Frith was a massively wealthy businessman who in the 1850s decided to use his fortune to indulge his hobby, photography. In doing so he created one of the world's most comprehensive photographic archives.

For the Clitheroe book, historian Catherine Rothwell has put together an insightful commentary to accompany the photographs and all the pictures have detailed captions.

The most surprising thing about the majority of the photographs is how little Clitheroe and surrounding areas appear to have changed in over a century with many of the scenes looking very similar to today.

Clitheroe: Photographic Memories is available in paperback priced £10.99 from bookshops and online at www.francisfrith.co.uk