EAW000002 ENGLAND (1946). The Spitalbrook area and environs, Hoddesdon, 1946. This image has been produced from a damaged negative.

In the absence of negative A1, which has not survived, EAW000002 represents the re-start of commercial operations following the end of World War II. The first 151 images that Aerofilms Ltd took were on the old 5"x4" glass plates, so the firm must have held onto a WWI-vintage camera and some boxes of negatives to get started. From negative A152 onwards, the negatives are 5.5" square film negatives exposed using ex-RAF F24 aerial cameras. Aerofilms Ltd didn't give those up until the 1970s.

Unfortuntely the first negative that Aerofilms Ltd exposed when they started work again after World War II hasn't survived; so EAW000002 takes its place to represent the company getting back on its feet!