Author: Alan Burnett

Cobbles And Clotheslines

SCANNED NEGATIVES : COBBLES AND CLOTHESLINES Another of my photographs from fifty years ago. This was one of the many streets that climbed the hill to Claremount, Halifax. Streets of cobbles and clotheslines. Many of the tightly packed streets that climbed up New Bank were swept away when Burdock Way carved its way through Halifax. … Continue reading Cobbles And Clotheslines

Oaks And Stone

PICTURES FROM NOWHERE : OAKS AND STONE, RUPERRA, 7th APRIL 1932 An old photograph of a young man walking near Ruperra Castle in Wales in 1932. The photo is entitled "Oaks and Stone", but that poetic title is the extent of my knowledge. This is a print from a tiny album of photographs taken in … Continue reading Oaks And Stone

Brass And Bibles

Postcards From Home : Commercial Street, Halifax (1908) When it came to buildings, the folk of West Yorkshire favoured banks and chapels; temples to the soul and to commerce; brass and bibles. This fine building was erected in 1898 for the Halifax and Huddersfield Union Banking Company. To make way for it, part of Somerset … Continue reading Brass And Bibles

Losing The Thread

I'm not sure of the name of this machine, but generations of mill workers in my family will have known it well. To them it signified toil inside a dark mill; to me it is a shape against the light.  I have lost the thread.

Stained Glass Window

Bottles, jars and jugs piled high against a window in Salt's Mill, Saltaire. A stained glass window of infinite variability.

Gable Talk

Gable End, Brighouse : Scanned Negative c1970 A Yorkshire gable end. As uncompromising as a bigot. Two tight windows keep any illumination at bay.

The Good Old Days

1936 - the good, honest, old days when you could buy a "good honest radio" for £7-10. In these dishonest modern days you can buy one from Amazon and have change out of £4.

Brighouse Skyscrapers

One of my negatives from the early 1970s. Unmistakably Brighouse. Sugden's flour mill has the look of a distended Tower Bridge, and mill chimneys scrape the grainy sky.

Amputation At Salterhebble

On old picture postcard of the Lock House, Salterhebble. This is the point where the old Halifax Arm used to leave the canal. The arm is long gone - perhaps it's the fault of the guillotine lock!