This is a joyous photo. I have no idea who the people are, but they are striding away from the Marine Bathing Pavilion in Margate. At a guess, we are in the late 1920s, although, again, I can't be sure about that. What we can be certain about, however, is that they are having a … Continue reading Having A Great Time In Margate
Year: 2020
A Winter’s Day
It is the winter of 1964/65. A Labour Government led by a youthful Harold Wilson has just been elected into power. Sir Stanley Matthews is about to play his last First Division game at the age of 50. The Kray twins have been arrested in the East End, Agatha Christie is still writing Miss Marple … Continue reading A Winter’s Day
Lines
There are enough prominent buildings in the background of this photograph of Sheffield in the 1980s to enable a form of visual triangulation to be used to pin down its location. The problem would be stopping for long enough to set up your theodolite - even in a black and white photo, those look like … Continue reading Lines
A Grainy Memory
Another week, another strip of old negatives to scan and rediscover. And these six take me to another city and another decade, as we find ourselves in Sheffield in the 1980s. I was no longer a young man when I took these photographs, and to me, it seems like only yesterday; but a quick calculation … Continue reading A Grainy Memory
Looking Old
When I go through my old negatives looking for dating evidence, I normally focus on things such as car types, tv aerials, or even dustbin designs. Sometimes, however, a scene just "looks" old, and that is the case with this photograph of the view looking towards Shibden Valley from Beacon Hill. In fact, it looks … Continue reading Looking Old
Malting Memories
One of my photographs from half a century ago taken, I think, from the appropriately named Gas Works Lane, in Elland. Many of the buildings, along with the gasometer, have now gone and the aroma of the maltings is just a distant memory.
Fashion Statement
Three girls on a pebbly beach. Whoever took this photograph captured a classic image without knowing about it.It became a small print, destined to fade into sepia age, pasted in an album, gradually forgotten and then left to make up the numbers in a job lot of old photos. Probably the 1940s, just possibly the … Continue reading Fashion Statement
On Baring My Soul
I've always quite fancied being a poet, but I am a little bit on the shy side. I've discovered the perfect solution: QR Code Poetry. You write your poem and turn it into a QR readable image. I can now bare my soul whilst hiding behind the bath towel of technology. Perfect.
Still Scanning After All These Years
As the summer rolls on and the lockdown rules out picnics on the beach, sangria parties in smokey Balearic nightspots, and wild swimming adventures in the Barents Sea, I am restricted to my quest to scan my garden. Whilst cutting the lawn today, I plucked this seeded stem out of the ground and subjected the … Continue reading Still Scanning After All These Years
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