FRANCIS Frith, Victorian founder of the world-famous photographic archive, had a passion for landscape.

His work drew heavily upon the rise of tourism, which was in its infancy on the 1860s, when Frith was already a multi-millionaire, having established and sold a wholesale grocery business.

During the next decade, the railway network and establishment of bank holidays and half-Saturdays gradually made it possible for workers and their families to enjoy leisure time and travel in the UK and abroad.

Ilkley was photographed at various points in the various points in its development over the past 150 years, showing every aspect of the town landscape - streets, parks, landmark buildings and the swimming pool.

They provide an important and absorbing record of the town.

By 1970, the Francis Frith Collection contained more than a third of a million pictures of 7,000 cities, towns and villages.

Francis Frith died 1898 at his villa in the South of France, yet, under the management of his sons, the archive continued in business for another 70 years. By 1970 it contained more than a third of a million pictures.

* The Francis Frith Collection: Ilkley by Robert Preedy, costs £13.00 and is available from francisfrith.com or can be ordered from any bookshop.