The short answer is, yes, there are some places on the internet where people share old pictures of places in the UK, so it's reasonable to ask why we're doing this.

There's two reasons, really. Firstly, the most popular place for people's old pictures is Facebook. When you upload an image to Facebook - any image - you grant Facebook a worldwide, irrevocable licence to that image, which they can use how they choose . Maybe you and your kids have already been in an advert in Andalucia, or a magazine in Monterey. You'll probably never know.

You grant the same licence to most online photo sites - Twitter, Instagram, local newpapers, etc. - (others may sell your images, republish them in other media, or just happily sell advertising on them) but we don't think that's a very appropriate attitude to your personal memories.

Instead, having established ourselves as a community interest company , we will use any surpluses generated through subscriptions to find ways that the images can be used for the public good. We are particularly keen to see the images used in the reminiscence therapy used to work with dementia sufferers - in particular, Alzheimer's Disease. This may include the development of a specific app for carers, or tablet computers for them to work with.

The second reason we're doing this is for there to be one place to go to to look for old local images and stories. People are proud of their places - they know they're from Edgbaston, not Birmingham, for example - and we wanted every place in the UK & NI to have a home on Our Town Story. 

As generations come and go, and with the pace of redevelopment ever increasing, the backgrounds behind the photos we have will be lost for good, unless we take the opportunity now to tell our towns' stories. Hopefully, we can do it for everyone's benefit.

Oh - and our licence? You grant us a licence to display your images on our website. And that's it. If anyone (us included) wants to do someting else with it, they'll have to let you know.