Thornton is best known as the birthplace of the Bronte sisters and for its landmark 20-arch railway viaduct.

People born and raised in the village have their own landmarks and places of importance.

Bringing these to life is the purpose of Thornton Memories, a community exhibition at South Square Gallery – a location normally associated with unusual art installations and paintings.

Among the more than 200 items on display upstairs are historic photographs, paintings of village scenes, newspaper articles, a slide show with 80 slides in both black and white and colour, and video images with voice-overs by three villagers, George Hill, Hilda Sadler and Margrete Sutcliffe.

Exhibition organiser Jennifer Sobol says: “I have focused on the area around South Square and talked with local residents who describe what it was like living in Thornton from the 1920s onwards.

“The exhibition contains interviews celebrating the joys of playing with mud and digging for clay in an era when toys were a luxury, but where the community spirit was strong and the social fabric was bound together by trams, churches, mills and a thriving array of shops.”

South Square, which opened as an arts complex in 1982, used to consist of cottages for stone-cutters who worked on the nearby viaduct. Until 1955, Thornton had its own railway station and goods yard. Appropriately, in the downstairs gallery is an exhibition of nudes by the painter Doug Binder, one of the founders of the gallery. This show ends tomorrow.

Although Thornton Memories has been open to the public for three weeks, the official opening is on Friday, April 9, from 7pm.

Gallery curator David Knowles says: “Thornton Antiquarian Society will be here. We are inviting anybody from the village with an interest in its history to come along and help.

“We are going to number every item in the show so that people can share their historical information and knowledge.”

The memorabilia includes a programme for the Thornton Festival, dated June 29, 1980, when Richard Stilgoe was the star attraction.

Two years later, when South Square was opened, Bradford’s Lord Mayor, Councillor Olive Messer, was there, looking somewhat coyly at the camera.

Thornton Memories at South Square gallery is on until April 25. Admission is free. Opening hours are Tuesday to Sunday, noon to 3pm.