Edinburgh Libraries has launched a brand new online heritage resource which tells the story of the city’s historical past.  Our Town Stories (www.ourtownstories.co.uk) highlights some of the fantastic images from Capital Collections, and allows us bring them together with historical maps to tell the stories of people, places and life in the city.

Take a look at our fantastic Then & Now pictures and use the slider to play spot the difference. See buildings rise, or disappear, see ghosts from the past vanish and reappear, and townscapes grow. Use the same tool on our historical maps to see how the the city’s layout has developed since 1742.

The timeline ruler is another really useful tool which allows you to quickly zip to any time period between 1700 and the present day to see how Edinburgh looked at a particular point in history. Or you can use the dropdown menu to filter images on the map by century or by Then and Nows only.

See our full list of stories from the Story dropdown menu. The stories are built on the heritage collections of Edinburgh Libraries along with some fascinating tales contributed by partner organisations. Find out how fire-fighting has developed in Edinburgh since medieval times with a story by the Museum of Fire or take a literary tour across the map of Edinburgh with stories by Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature. We’ll be continuing to add stories to Our Town Stories over the coming months. If your school has a story to tell and would like to share it online, get in touch with informationdigital@edinburgh.gov.uk to discover how.