Year: 2018

Streets Ahead Of Its Time

Street photography is all the rage at the moment. As a photographic genre it is usually said to date from the introduction of miniature 35mm cameras in the 1930s. But this old print - which appeared in a mixed batch of old photographs bought on eBay - dates from at least a decade earlier. It … Continue reading Streets Ahead Of Its Time

Restoring Fixby To Its Rightful Place In The World

I live in Fixby, which today is in Huddersfield. According to Wikipedia, "Fixby is traditionally part of Huddersfield". This is not the case at all - the township of Fixby was traditionally part of Halifax. It was only transferred to Huddersfield (and Kirklees) when the M62 motorway was built and someone decided that the motorway … Continue reading Restoring Fixby To Its Rightful Place In The World

Turning Up The Prince Of Wales

This little albumen carte-de-visite of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (who was later to become King Edward VII) turned up in a job lot of old Victorian prints I bought the other week. It dates from about 1862 and comes from the Paris studios of Emile Desmaisons.  The print is now over 150 years old … Continue reading Turning Up The Prince Of Wales

Who Is Crossing The North Sea?

One of the most difficult challenges with old photograph albums is identifying the albums creator, as - by definition in those pre-smart phone days - the photographer rarely features in the photographs themselves. In the 1925 Northern Capitals album, there is an intriguing series of photographs taken whilst the cruise ship was "crossing the North … Continue reading Who Is Crossing The North Sea?

Good News For Mothers

I always think that it would be possible to run an entire course in economic and social history based on nothing other than newspaper advertisements. From the perspective of 90 years into the future, I am not sure what is more surprising about this advert from the Yorkshire Evening Post of May 18th 1928. Perhaps … Continue reading Good News For Mothers

10 From Spain 5 : Lingering Smile

Years and years of sun, gusts and gusts of wind, and the occasional rain that has strayed down off the plain have had their effects on this church carving - but that glimmer of a smile still lingers on.

Gone Fishing

For a number of years now I have regularly gathered together all my various blog posts and published them every so often in book form. The main reason for this is to create an archive of my words and images so that when Blogger or WordPress or Facebook eventually curls up and expires, I still have … Continue reading Gone Fishing

10 From Spain 4 : A New Spanish Flag

If ever Spain decides it needs a new flag, they could do worse than an angled white building set against a stunning blue sky.