The Image Bank and Rural Archive was established in 1999 and is based at the historic Town Mill in the medieval town of Totnes.
The Totnes archive contains over 45.000 digital photographs of Totnes and the South Devon area including the South Hams. Early images date from the 1860’s to the present day. Totnes subjects cover town life, civic functions and traditions, Mayor & corporation, listed buildings, monuments, carnivals & events, the railway, river Dart, Shops & shopkeepers, businesses, factories, family history, theatre, cinema, fires, hotels & pubs, schools, sports, aerial photography and many more.
Rural Archive covers villages and farming life through out South Devon. There are over 7000 images of a way of life now lost.
Also in the Mill, exhibitions of local photography show aspects of life in and around Totnes. Plus an audio/visual story of Totnes illustrated with photographs and film from the 1860s. Displays of cameras and equipment dating from the beginning of the wet plate process to the end of film-based photographic equipment. The Darkroom is a complete professional photographers darkroom with an audio/visual story.