WELL-KNOWN historian Geoffrey Poole is holding an exhibition of his work next week.

The culmination of decades of study and observation, From the Archives of Geoffrey Poole promises to be an outstanding and fascinating display.

Among the exhibits will be part of Geoffrey's outstanding collection of photographs capturing all aspects of everyday life in Dorset and beyond, as well as some stunning landscape shots.

From fishermen hauling in their nets on Chesil Beach to families relaxing on Weymouth's sands and stunning glimpses over Dorchester's water meadows, all this and more have been captured by Geoffrey.

Visitors will also be able to enjoy the catalogue of his campaigns against certain items of bureaucratic folly' such as Weymouth's planned town centre development, the Jubilee Hall saga, the Preston Beach developments and the current furore surrounding Weymouth's proposed Pavilion development.

The exhibition is the result of a Lottery grant awarded to Geoffrey to enable him to collate all his writings, lecture notes and photographs into an archive that will be used as an educational and research tool for students of the future.

"I have an endless curiosity of the moment and much of the exhibition will be made up of vignettes of life and history," explains Geoffrey, who always carries a small notebook with him so he can jot down snippets of overheard chat or describe something happening.

If he has no book to hand, he has been known to use table napkins and anything else he can lay his hands on.

And although he can be a vocal critic of Weymouth and Portland Borough Council, he says the exhibition is being staged along strictly apolitical lines.

"It is not a polemic," he says.

"I am not using the exhibition to try and get across my views. Instead, these are snapshots of history.

"I love the 'nowness' of it, how the things we do, even those we consider to be ephemera, become history."

From the Archives of Geoffrey Poole runs in the Mulberry Gallery at Weymouth Library in Great George Street from Wednesday, February 27 until Saturday, March 8 during library opening hours.

A longer interview with Geoffrey can be found in the Dorset Echo Weekend magazine of Saturday, February 23.