Photographs featuring three generations of the same family are to be posted on part of a 500-metre long hoarding board in a regeneration zone.

Jean Ashby, aged 71, has donated pictures of her parents, grandparents and great-grandparents for the artwork going up in Bucknall New Road, Hanley. The display is expected to be the largest artworks of its kind in the country.

Dozens of properties are being demolished on one side of the road as part of the City Waterside redevelopment.

Regeneration body RENEW North Staffordshire has commissioned Glassball Arts to produce the hoarding as part of a Living Gallery project using personal photographs donated by residents.

The hoarding will run from the junction of Ivy House Road, along Bucknall New Road, and finish at Wellington Road.

It will be expanded as more buildings are knocked down and the boards will stay in place for up to five years.

Mrs Ashby, who lives in Seymour Street with her husband Albert and has a daughter Lorraine, aged 40, said: “I was happy to have the pictures on the hoarding as my family has always been proud of the area.

“I inherited my house off my grandmother. My family has always lived in the area and never wanted to live anywhere else. I think that they would be proud to share our history.

“The photographs are portrait shots and also of family members, standing outside properties.

“We’re grateful for anything that will make the area look better as regeneration work is going on. At the moment as you drive through it looks like Beirut. We want to make it a nicer place to live.”

Through the Living Gallery project images of canals, pot banks and parts of Hanley have already been fixed to windows and doors of terrace homes on the road.

Artist Cora Glasser, who is co-ordinating the project for Glassball, said she was appealing for residents’ personal photographs, which could include scenery from the City Waterside area, from past to present, or feature family members.

She said the idea behind the project was to brighten up the area as properties were knocked down and the building work continued.

She said the organisation is also consulting with residents about how they want the photographs presented on the hoarding, which could be in 3-D with visual trickery, abstract or in large pieces, like sentences.

Residents who want to give their opinions can email info@living-gallery.org