A photographic tale of decades of local journalism has been on show in the South East.

The Kent Messenger celebrates its 150th birthday this year so picture editor Barry Hollis and reporter Angela Cole trawled the archives to gather shots for a town centre display.

Visitors to Maidstone's Mall Chequers shopping centre were able to peruse the photos in 'News in Pictures' exhibition.

Images selected (see below) included pictures of Maidstone through the ages, dating back to the 1920s and 30s; a number of wartime pictures, including evacuees gathering at a town centre station, and fun ones of people dancing in the streets.

The exhibition, accompanied by a souvenir pullout, also included pictures of sporting events throughout the last century, including Maidstone United's open topped bus parade through the town centre in the 1980s, the Tour de France whizzing through in 2007 and Radio 1's Big Weekend last summer.

The Messenger says it has been inundated with responses from readers who had spotted themselves or relatives in the shots and it carried a double page spread of them during the exhibition's second week.

Editor Bob Bounds said: "It was great to celebrate the proud history of the Kent Messenger.

"The exhibition generated a huge amount of interest and reiterated the point that people just love pictures."

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