Aerial Photos
We hold over 4 million aerial photographs covering the whole of England and dating from the early 20th century to the present day. This unique collection, held in our Archive in Swindon, captures the changes in our urban and rural landscape over a period of almost 100 years.
Explore 50 years of aerial discoveries from the national flying programme
Find aerial photographs
You can search over 95,000 oblique aerial photographs online via the Britain from Above website.
The rest of the collection has not been digitised, but you can request a free search to find out what aerial cover we have for your area of interest.
You can also arrange to view prints free of charge in our Search Room in Swindon.
Colour aerial photos
Please click on the gallery images to enlarge.
Vertical aerial photos
Please click on the gallery images to enlarge.
How to use aerial photography
You can use aerial photographs in many different ways, including for:
- Local history - see how a village, town or city has developed over time
- Family history - you might be able to see where your ancestors once lived, even if the street has long since been demolished
- Archaeological research - study cropmarks, soilmarks and earthworks to identify features that may not be visible today
- Desk-based assessments - identify previous land use from traces of early agriculture to mining and heavy industry
- Boundary disputes and other legal issues - historic aerial photos may help settle issues
You can virtually see individual window panes of a house, taken from an aeroplane which is goodness knows how many thousands of feet up!
Also of interest

What's New in the Archive?
Here you can find out about collections we've recently taken in and also how we decide which collections to accept.

Search and Licensing Services
We offer a range of free and paid-for enquiry services to help you search our Archive.

Airborne Remote Sensing
Historic England experts use airborne remote sensing methods to identify, record and monitor the condition of heritage assets

Aerial Photographs
The use of aerial photographs in archaeological landscape survey.