This is one of my favourite photographs from my walks around Halifax 55 years ago. When I took it, did I think I was capturing a world that was vanishing - a world of cobbled streets, gas lights and soot-stained stone terraces - or did I simply see it as an interesting composition? In truth, … Continue reading My Little Town
Month: August 2025
Miriam On The Lake
My visit to the Lake District concludes with this rather wonderful photograph of my Auntie Miriam taken on a boat there ninety or so years ago. Whilst Miriam's smile is, as always, engaging, my attention is immediately captured by the passenger in the rather wonderful hat.
A Soggy View
I took this photograph in the Lake District more than forty years ago. How the bench came to be in the lake I cannot remember, but it was too good a photographic opportunity to miss, so I persuaded my wife and a friend to get their feet wet. Today we are back in the Lake … Continue reading A Soggy View
Fun With Pinky And Perky
The Halifax Charity Gala parade some sixty years ago. There was a lack of sophistication and a fair amount of amateurishness in terms of costume design, but they are fun to look back at now. My photographs at the time demonstrates a lack of sophistication and more than a fair amount of amateurishness, but they … Continue reading Fun With Pinky And Perky
Two Rough Days At Sea
I have a very large box of unsorted, unwanted, and undocumented photographs which sits on my desk, and yesterday I dipped into it to get a photo so that I could check the connection between my scanner and my new computer. My choice was entirely random, but the result pleased me - so much so … Continue reading Two Rough Days At Sea
Bobbin-Ligging
Holmfield Mill in Halifax - a photograph I must have taken in the late 1960s or early 70s. I had a summer job there at about that time, working as a "bobbin-ligger" - collecting used bobbins from around the mill and stacking them in pointless piles.
Up On The Roof
I am migrating programmes and files from my old computer to my new one, a process which, in terms of stress levels, is equivalent to moving house. Whilst waiting for a lengthy download to take effect, I started messing with an image file and ended up with this rather nice picture - I've called it … Continue reading Up On The Roof
Kind Of Blue
The colour isn't particularly real - I must have added it at some stage in the fifty or so years since I took the original photograph. We tend, however, to think of Halifax back in the '60s and '70s in terms of black and white, forgetting that the mill-ponds could occasionally reflect blue skies. You … Continue reading Kind Of Blue
Smedley’s Hydro
In 1840, Matlock mill-owner John Smedley turned his back on "a life of excessive indulgence" and dedicated himself to religion and hydrotherapy. His original treatment rooms were replaced in the 1880s by this magnificent establishment, which continued to serve as an Hydro until the 1950s when it was converted into offices for Matlock Council. The … Continue reading Smedley’s Hydro
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