TAKE a look at these images of the Nursling and Rownhams of the past.

Today we delve into the photographic archive of Brian Sibley from the villages where he has spent all his 80 years.

The head of the 132-year-old family coal firm E.J. Sibley for decades, Brian remains a well-known face around Nursling and Rownhams where he is often recognised, except villagers usually expect him to be covered head to toe in soot!

Brian and his family live at Toothill, on a site on the edge of Mountbatten’s Broadlands Estate which served as the headquarters of their coal empire. The business moved there in 1972 when the cutting of the M27 motorway led to the compulsory purchase of the previous location quarter of a mile away of the business started by Brian’s great great grandfather Steve House in horse and cart times and made a limited company by his father Emuel James.

Their fleet of lorries carried young carol singers on their trailers for many years. Brian’s pride and joy 1927 Rolls Royce is still rolled out for special occasions.