It was 1982, a couple of years before the miners' strike. It was the annual Yorkshire Miners' Gala which, that year, was taking place in Doncaster. The pit banners had already been paraded through the town to the tune of a dozen brass bands. And then they left.
Month: January 2025
Fire, Fire!
Yet another photo from that "Fire In Halifax" sequence of mine from 59 years ago. Do firemen still have helmets like this? Do kids still gather around to watch the excitement? These days they would be filming it for a TikTok video - but wan't I doing just that all those years ago?
Snakes And Branches
This view of Elland is taken from an old picture postcard, published more than 120 years ago. Of course, Elland has changed; most of those mill chimneys have gone, and blocks of flats stand where back-to-back houses once clung to the hillside. The river remains, and those roads that either snake along the valley bottom … Continue reading Snakes And Branches
Enjoy The Music
A family sat outside a cottage relaxing and listening to music streaming from a wind-up gramophone. It's a classic "found photo" - dripping with detail and asking more questions than any government census form. We'll never get answers, but that doesn't matter: sit back and enjoy the music.
Messing About
I've been messing about again, starting the new year as I mean to go on. Those who are familiar with these parts might recognise Halifax Minster somewhere in there and the mighty spire of Square Church. The rest isn't really a photograph and it certainly isn't art - it's just messing about.
Digging For Memories
This is my father digging the back garden at our house in Northowram back in the late 1950s. He might as well have been digging for memories because there are so many of them in this picture: that lethal asbestos hut, those granite sets liberated from the nearby quarry, and that youth perched on the … Continue reading Digging For Memories
Keeping Watch
I've been taking this picture for 60 years. I've watched the names change, and I've seen the stone soot-black and bleached pale. I've seen the Hebble flow fast and slow. I've seen carpets and spreadsheets, dyers and diners. Here's hoping for another year to keep watch over this glorious Halifax.
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