IT took Lynn Ballard two decades to sort through the huge collection of photographs her father left her following his death.

And now, perhaps fittingly as this weekend marks the anniversary of his loss 20 years ago, Lynn has recently been able to catalogue and upload thousands of the images he captured from his teenage years until he was in his 60s.

Lynn, who lives in Colchester, explains he captured a whole host of memories throughout the years in north Essex and adds she wanted to be able to share them with others.

“I have a lot of old photos and I started putting them on sites for other people to enjoy and then I got round to uploading them on to Flickr so other people could see them.

“When he died 20 years ago, when he was only 64, he left me all his photographs and we loaded them into the car on the day of his funeral and I took them home.

“But so many of them were in negative form so it has taken a long time to sort through them all,” adds Lynn.

Since the photographs appeared she says one of the most popular has been these images of the outdoor swimming pool which was at its height of popularity in the ‘50s and ‘60s.

Situated at Colne Bank Avenue below the bridge, the outdoor bathing area and swimming pool is now the Canoe Club.

Lynn says: “My most popular photo on the Colchester site is one of the old outdoor swimming pool, I have a few shots, different angles plus I have recently been down to the site and photographed it as it is now.

“It has created a stir with people wanting to clean it up and make it a pleasant space to be.”

Lynn also recalls a time Alf, who always had his camera with him, was at the scene of a tragic accident when a woman was killed in a bus accident in Colchester’s Queen Street in the 1970s.

He submitted some of the photographs he took in the aftermath of the incident to the Evening Gazette but Lynn explains some people did not agree with him doing this at the time.

She says she was around ten at the time but remembers it very clearly and that there was controversy around his having taken photographs.

“I was with him. He sent me off on the bus and went off with his camera, he bought the film to the Gazette office because he realised how dangerous buses and trucks could be at the time and wanted to highlight the fact.

“The paper ran the story and he was always glad he stuck to his belief.

“Soon after that it was made compulsory to have reversing sirens fitted on all commercial vehicles.

“He had to take the shot, he couldn’t just ignore the bigger picture,” says Lynn, 54.

Alf and his brother John, who Lynn says looked exactly like her father, were the seventh generation of their family to be born and grow up in Brightlingsea.

He worked a day job at ARC and Hoveringham, handling large lorries and heavy machines but when he was about 16 he became friendly with a photographer in Colchester and his love of taking pictures began.

The family also lived in Winnock Road, Colchester, for a time where Alf and his wife Shelagh Rose ran a bed and breakfast at Gordon Villas.

But Lynn was the first in eight generations of her father’s family to have been born outside of Brightlingsea.

She is understandably passionate about her Brightlingsea heritage and has tried to research her family tree as much as possible.

“I did a tree which took us as far back to 1750 and I discovered we came from the Oyster Merchants Jefferies,” explains Lynn

Among the major events Alf captured were the homecoming of Brightlingsea’s Olympic rowers Reg White and John Osborn.

The pair won gold in the Tornado class at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and were given a heroes’ welcome upon their return to the riverside town.

“He was right there at the front for the homecoming parade.

“My dad knew them both very well and I think it shows in the photographs,” says Lynn.

“I am so thrilled people are interested in his photos, it really means so much and is particularly poignant because of it being the anniversary of when he died.”

His collection of photos have been divided up by Lynn into albums and as well as family holidays he has also captured events such as the Military Tattoos and major incidents.

“Not many people had a decent camera or were able to take good photographs so he was often asked.”

Another album is entirely dedicated to Brightlingsea and its people and places.

Lynn hopes the photographs will prompt memories for people who visit the pages she has uploaded.

“People have commented or got in touch if maybe they think something is not quite right in it.

“My dad loved taking photographs so much and I am just happy if people are interested in looking at them now.

You can find the photographs uploaded by Lynn at www.flickr.com and searching under photos by Alf Jefferies.