Welcome to the Website of Alan Burnett: writer, blogger, collector of old photographs, and devotee of all things pointless and inconsequential.
Celebration At The Rock
This is a classic image of what has always been, to me, a classic pub. It’s not the closest pub to where I live, but it’s my local. It doesn’t have the fanciest range of real cask ales, but I’ll forgive it. It’s undoubtedly idiosyncratic, but so am I. My picture shows a 1911 celebration at the Rock Tavern, Upper Edge, Elland. There will be another celebration there next Friday (the 15th), when the Friday quiz returns after a six years absence.…
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Four Characters In Search Of a Narrative
Another image from that collection of old photographs I’ve acquired over the years, which fall under the general heading of “Found Photographs”. As usual, the questions of who, where and when must…
Oxford Days
A 40-odd year old photograph of me, surrounded by textbooks and typewriter, and captioned “Oxford, 1984” might suggest an involvement with some of the famed academic institutions of that city. In fact,…
Conversations With A. I. Lowry
So I said to AI, “What if L. S. Lowry had visited Elland and set up his easel on Saddleworth Road, looking towards Elland Bridge?” “Give me a photo to start me…
A Town In Transition
My photograph of Halifax dates from the early 1970s and shows the town during a time of transition. Centre stage is the Homfray carpet mill (although by then it had…
A Contented Pig
I met this splendid fellow yesterday during a visit to the Pigs In The Wood Animal Sanctuary in Scissett, Huddersfield. When I asked him to smile for the camera, he…
The Celebration
This photo has been in that suitcase of memories I call the “family archives” for as long as I can remember, and I always assumed the cake was celebrating the…
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