In pictures and video: All our Telford yesterdays go digital

This fascinating selection of photos and film footage is being made public after years of sitting in the archives, thanks to a National Lottery grant which has allowed the images to be stored digitally for future generations.

The photographs have now been reproduced in a series of picture postcards depicting the early days of Telford New Town. They also feature in an interactive display at Telford Library in Southwater.

Four film clips, detailing landmark moments during the development of the new town, are also now available on a website called telfordournewtown.co.uk, while others have been used as part of a compilation film which has been shown during special events at the library.

• Click here to watch the films

Librarian Jane Baker says there has been a great deal of interest in the project since it was launched in the summer.

"Even people who are not from Telford like to see it and learn about the area," she says. "For people who have lived in Telford for a long time, it's part of their heritage. No, it's not 200 years ago, but for people today things that happened in the 1960s, 70s and 80s is their heritage."

A group of children aged 11 to16 have also developed a smartphone app, Once Upon a Telford, which chronicles the history of the area. Available from The App Store, it invites users to follow an interactive map on a trail through the town park and gardens, featuring old photographs and details about the history of the area.

Telford & Wrekin library services has received £88,900 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, with a view to eventually creating an electronic archive of photographs, film footage, newspaper cuttings and documents relating to the town's early years.

One video clip, which is sure to bring back memories, shows the Duke of Edinburgh performing the official opening of the former Madeley Court sports centre in July, 1972.

Another video shows children's author the Rev Wilbert Awdry, best known for his Thomas the Tank Engine series of books, taking a ride on the narrow-gauge steam tram which used to run through Telford Town Park in the 1970s. In the clip, Mr Awdry appears to be unveiling a plaque which names the tram Thomas. The tram is now kept at the Telford Steam Railway in Horsehay.

The installation of the distinctive 'beehive' roof at Telford Shopping Centre, using what was said to be the third largest crane in the UK at the time, and children planting trees at Sutton Hill probably in the late 70s have also been captured on film.

The project focuses on the development of five areas of the town – Brookside and Stirchley; Dawley, Hollinswood and Randlay; Malinslee; Woodside and central Telford – from its inception in the early 1960s through to the 1980s.

French grocery giant Carrefour became the first store to open at the Telford Shopping Centre in 1973, and the exciting new superstore is captured in a photograph from this time, when customers were invited to try their luck at winning the must-have small family car of the day – the Mk1 Ford Escort.

There is a picture of a separate visit by the Duke of Edinburgh to Brookside in 1972, and colour images of the new housing developments at Hollinswood during the mid 1970s. Another photo of road construction around Woodside, and the camel-racing at Telford Town Park in 1979 will evoke many memories.

Later pictures show former Wimbledon champion John McEnroe visiting Telford Racquet Centre during the 1980s, and the opening of the town's railway station in 1986.

The plan is to eventually create a comprehensive digital database of audio recordings, newspaper cuttings, and a collection of film clips collated by the Media Archive for Central England. All the photographs will be catalogued on the Shropshire Archives website, where people will be able to buy copies. Cuttings from the Shropshire Star's sister paper, the Telford Journal, will be available on computers at the Southwater One building.

A hi-tech 'digital table' at Southwater library allows visitors to choose from a selection of photographs and enlarge them.

The Reading Hacks children's group has also produced a pop-up book relating to the archive images, helped by artist Katy Alston.

The library's next Telford Our New Town event, on October 10, will have an arts and leisure theme, and people are invited to come into the library and view the photographs and watch the film footage, as well as bring in any images they may have and share their memories. The event starts at 2pm.