Old strips of negatives can be wonderfully evocative because they provide context as well as individual images. This strip of 35mm monochrome images of mine dates back to the early 1970s when I was at university in Keele and would frequently escape the rigors of macroeconomic theory by wandering the byways of the neighbouring five towns that made up Stoke-on-Trent. On the day that I took these photographs I had obviously decided to explore the Trent and Mersey Canal as it passed through the wonderfully named Etruria.
The area was named by Josiah Wedgewood when he built his new pottery works here in 1769 (it was named after the region of Etruria in Italy in an early example of somewhat fanciful marketing). By the early 1970s, the pottery works had been moved, and the old canal was caught in the doldrums between commercial and leisure traffic. It was a sight made for monochrome, and I was lucky to have the opportunity to capture it.
alanburnett.com 
North Staffordshire Heritage viewed Alan’s photographs with great interest and was most impressed by their quality. His photographs capture the character and atmosphere of Etruria Junction as it was in the early 1970s
During the late 1960s, David photographed the Trent & Mersey and the Caldon Canals for a group of canal enthusiasts opposing British Waterways’ plans to close the Caldon Canal and turn it into a feeder channel for the Trent & Mersey Canal.
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