One of the biggest pictorial histories of Brighton and Hove has been unearthed in a private sale.

Tony Cordt discovered more than 400 photographs of the city in the Forties, Fifties and Sixties at the sale near his home in Manchester, in their original negative state complete with captions.

Tony, who has only visited Brighton and Hove once ten years ago, has now restored the pictures with his business partners and transferred them to his educational web site.

He said: "They are by far the biggest batch we have of one part of the country.

"Believe it or not, images from the Forties to Sixties are harder to get hold of than the older stuff from the turn of the last century."

The negatives had been kept in damp conditions and were damaged, but they were still in their original labelled bags detailing dates and places.

They offer a unique insight into the society of the day and highlight how much the city has changed since.

The old Hove Town Hall in 1958, which burnt down in 1966, bears no resemblance to the building standing in its place today and a family buying a Christmas tree in Kensington Gardens in 1946 appears to be straight out of a James Stewart film.

Tony said: "Brighton was well photographed because it was one of the major resorts of its day, but the photos were mainly of the front. There were very few of the streets behind or the fabric of the town."

Tony is thinking of visiting Brighton for a second time to update his photographic archive.

He intends to visit the places depicted in the 400 negatives and take new photographs to show how they have changed.

Thumbnails of the images can be viewed at www.pastpix.com but only schools, universities and libraries can register with the educational site to download the full-sized pictures.