A COLLECTION of work by a former Darwen artist has gone on display for the first time in almost 35 years.

But mystery remains over the locations portrayed in some of the paintings, and Darwen people are being asked to view the exhibition in case they can provide vital clues.

More than 100 paintings, etchings and drawings by James H Morton are on display at Lancaster University until June 3 after an appeal in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph to trace pieces of his work received an overwhelming response.

But organisers still hope that Darwen people can provide them with missing information.

Lauren Humphries, one of the organisers, said: "We are really grateful to everyone who contacted us about letting us borrow their artwork following the appeal in the Evening Telegraph.

"There are now a couple of pieces where we don't know the location but there are many others where we've been able to pin them down to certain areas. It would be very interesting to find out if any visitors have more information about them.

"There's one with a bridge in the scene that may be local to Darwen and people may have knowledge about."

Mr Morton, who was well known in Darwen, was killed aged 37 during the First World War as he tried to rescue an American soldier.

He asked his four sisters to keep his artwork together if he died but after his last surviving sister, Alice, died in 1967, the paintings were auctioned at the Windsor Suite of Blackburn's King George's Hall and ended up scattered across the country.

Now, for the first time since the works were sold off, they are being exhibited in one place, at the university's Peter Scott Gallery.

The exhibition also includes initial sketches and artist's materials, as well as a full-colour illustrated catalogue to accompany the exhibition, including an essay by Alan Duckworth, a writer and community historian from Blackburn Library.

Mr Morton was born in 1881 in Tockholes Road. He won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in London before becoming an art teacher in Yorkshire.