In this strange, modern world in which we live, we travel vicariously: in our minds and in our memories. My particular means of transport is my collection of negatives: photographs I too fifty or so years ago. They not only remind me of a time in my life, but also of people, crowds, cars, noise: … Continue reading Vicarious Travel
Month: April 2020
Up The Junction
Superimposed on our familiar landscapes are echoes of the past; Victorian ley lines that were the superhighways of their time. I took this photo of Holmfield Station in Halifax 50 years ago: it was forgotten then, it's lost now. Holmfield railway station was opened by the Great Northern Railway in 1878. For a short while … Continue reading Up The Junction
Bobbin Ligging
Smith Bulmer's Mill in Holmfield, Halifax, pictured in the late 1960s or early 1970s. I had a holiday job there once, as - what used to be known as - a "bobbin ligger": sorting out a mountain of old bobbins into pointless piles.
Counting The Chimneys
Even more proof that life existed in Halifax before Burdock Way. This photo has a slightly wider field of view than yesterdays. If you are stuck inside during Lockdown with nothing to do, you can always count the chimneys!
Life Before Burdock
Photographic proof - if ever proof was needed - that there was life in Halifax before the Burdock Way. I must have taken this photograph sometime around 1970: after much of the demolition of New Bank, but before the overpass was started.
No Message Required
This is a rather strange picture postcard featuring the Victorian and Edwardian entertainer, Marie Studholme. The photograph is fetching enough: she sits suspended in a hammock next to a table bearing a tennis racket. The table, however, also contains a basket full f some strange unidentified objects that look rather like a cross between a … Continue reading No Message Required
Hand Still Improving In The land Of Possibilities
A moment in history captured by a cheap picture postcard. It is April 1906 and MBD is in Washington DC. He - or could it be, she - is there for the day: and that can mean either Washington or, more specifically, the Pensions Building. The building is a grand affair, built in the mid … Continue reading Hand Still Improving In The land Of Possibilities
Smiling Faces
If you are locked-in, socially isolated, tired of twiddling your thumbs: what better to do than to go searching for photographs. You can't get out, however; so the search has to be conducted from the safety of your desktop. You don't even need a stack of pictures: old photographs have layer after layer of art … Continue reading Smiling Faces
Pictures From Nowhere : April 2020
FOUR CRAZY GOLFERS : Who they are, I have no idea, but don't they look to be having fun! The date could be anywhere between the mid 1930s and the mid 1950s. Why they seem to be wearing their raincoats the wrong way round remains a mystery.
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