A new free exhibition, exploring the history of black and Asian people in the Yorkshire Dales, has opened at the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes.

Called Hidden History of the Dales, People and Places has been timed to coincide with Black History Month, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the abolishment of the British trade in enslaved Africans.

Fiona Rosher, museum manager, said: “A number of black Africans settled in the Dales and Across Yorkshire as a result of the slave trade and this exhibition highlights those often overlooked links between this region, the Caribbean and Africa.

“One of the exciting aspects of this exhibition has been the way it has acted as a catalyst for people from within and outside the area to find out more about their own ancestry and their links with the British trade in enslaved Africans.”