Welcome to the Website of Alan Burnett: writer, blogger, collector of old photographs, and devotee of all things pointless and inconsequential.
The Shape Of Things Gone By
This is not so much the shape of things to come as the shape of things gone by. That unmistakable shape of 1980s cars, TV aerials, telephone lines stretched across streets – they all spell out the eighties. And note the delicious absence of that most twenty-first century visual blight – the plastic wheelie bin. This was Sheffield in the 1980s.
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The Only Decent Place In Fixby
This early twentieth century picture postcard has a fine view of Fixby Hall, which was one of the ancestral homes of the Thornhill family, but, by the time of this postcard, it…
Timeless Style
The Victorian photographer, John Bell, promised “photography in the latest styles” on the reverse of his classic carte de visites. There is, however, something timeless about the face featured on the front…
Albert In A Flap
Our Sepia Saturday theme this week is all about strange shapes, and the closest I seem to be able to get to it is this photograph from almost 100 years ago. I…
Nostalgic Thoughts
When Greenwoods was on’t corner, and Marks at top of town; when one day you could wait up, and next day you’d wait down. When sun was always shining, and…
Sheffield Nights / Sheffield Days
There are no cars in this scene which always makes dating it a little more difficult. The clothes don’t give many clues either: fashion takes a back seat to insulation…
A Postcard From Keighley
A POSTCARD FROM KEIGHLEY Few things can provide a mirror to social history better than the humble picture postcard. On the one side you have the view, and although, as…
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