A company is powering up and ready to mark its 70th birthday.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), which supplies Dorset, is preparing to mark a year of memorable milestones in 2018 – and it needs the help of residents.

The network operator is keen to track down anyone involved in the organisation over the last 70 years, to hear their stories and to help share those memories with colleagues and customers, past and present.

As part of this, readers may be able to help the company identify any of the workers shown in two of the photographs show here – electricity staff after the big storm of 1987, above, and, far right, workers at Brownsea Island in 1963 – the year the island was opened to the public.

SSE Head of Heritage, Gillian O’Reilly, is responsible for the year of reminiscence and wants to speak to anyone who would like to share their memories from the early days of the SEB and through its transition to today’s SSEN.

She said: “The year ahead is important as SSEN’s history is part of central southern England’s history too and the development of the regions and communities it has served over the past 70 years has helped to shape the company we know today.”

SSEN supplies electricity to some 3.1 million homes across central southern England.

Originally known as the Southern Electricity Board (SEB), the company has grown and developed from its base at Woolley Hall in Maidenhead to its current home in Forbury Place, Reading.

It says its principle and priority of keeping the lights on as safely and efficiently as possible for the communities it serves remains the same.

SSEN incorporates Scottish Hydro Electric Power Distribution and Southern Electric Power Distribution.

Gillian O’Reilly said: “If you worked with the company between the 1940s and 1980s or if you lived in a community near a construction project, I would love to hear from you.

“I’d also be keen to hear people’s accounts on how their work or home life changed because of better access to electricity during these times. And, of course, old photos or film footage of any kind are of great interest, so please share them too.”

To share your stories, email SSEN’s heritage team at heritage@sse.com or call 07469 411479.