Old Lane And Dean Clough, Halifax (c1970) There was a greyness about Halifax back in those days: fifty or more shades between smoke and soot. But it was honest, hard-worked muck - nowt to be ashamed of.
Author: Alan Burnett
Vicarious Travel
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
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
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