Enter search text terms in the search box. A logical AND is performed between all the search terms entered.

Searching by ID

To locate an image by SWOP ID, type the full ID i.e RHW01010, or just type the numeric portion i.e. 01010

Filters

Filters help narrow results to a smaller, more manageable set from the collection. While text searches can return hundreds of photos, filters narrow the results and prevent unrelated results that might appear with only text. They can also be used with text searches to quickly find specific photos. 

Filters let you refine your search by criteria such as location, photographer, collection, or subject before entering text search terms. They limit results to the selected SWOP field, unlike text searches, which scan all fields. For example, filtering by road names might give irrelevant matches when searching within a specific collection or photographer. 

Filters support multiple selections: you can choose several terms within a category, and the system will match if any of them are present, using logical OR. For instance, selecting “Oxford Street” or “Oxford Road.” A filter term can be chosen by typing the first few letters, which is helpful for finding location terms.

Search by location

Photos are organised geographically with a hierarchy of town, village, and road tags. Wycombe has the most detailed mapping, mainly tagged by road. Areas with fewer photos are tagged at the town or village level. When using the location filter, selecting an area, town, or village automatically includes all sub-areas (e.g., villages and roads); these sub-areas do not need to be individually selected. 

The phrase ‘West Wycombe Road’ will return all results containing ‘West’, ‘Wycombe’, and ‘Road’ in any field of the image data. To specifically limit results to ‘West Wycombe Road’, use the location filter and choose that option.

Since the collection centres on Wycombe, where most photos are located, it is divided into three main areas: High Wycombe (central), High Wycombe (outer), and Wycombe Marsh, with further subdivisions, such as suburbs and roads, within these regions.

Filtering by Subject and Object

The Subject and Object filters help users locate specific groups of photos during searches. Subjects classify photos by type, setting, event, or subject, such as landscape, streetscape, transport, and celebration; see the dropdown for the complete list. Objects are recognisable items in the photo that may not be the main focal point, like a bus, pub, pond/lake, or river/stream. For more options, check the dropdown.

Filtering by date

By default, results are ordered by relevance to the search terms, providing the quickest results when multiple photos are retrieved. The ‘Results Order’ filter allows users to sort photos by their SWOP ID or by the date they were taken, helping track changes at a location over time. For many older photos, the date may be an estimate, based on the best efforts of volunteers cataloging the images.

If the returned results are still too numerous to review easily, the ‘Date Range’ feature can be used to narrow the results to a specific year range by entering a start year and an end year. Entering only one date enables searches from that date onwards, or up to the ‘To’ date, which is useful for examining a particular historical period.