The iconic "R" - the trademark of Ramsden's Brewery - still graces many a pub window in the Halifax area. The setting sunlight illuminating its stained glass presence had an almost mystical significance for many acolytes of Old Tom and Stone Trough Ales. Ramsden's Brewery and its beers are long gone, but the R still … Continue reading The Iconic R
Author: Alan Burnett
The Line Out Of Town
The railway line out of Halifax, heading north-east, dodging around the mills and factories, plunging under Beacon Hill. It's a line I took out of town a couple of years before I took this photograph in 1970, a line I have taken back into the town I will always call home on many subsequent occasions.
Look Into Their Faces And See History
I have no idea who Mr George Day of Fairbury, Illinois was, or how the photograph of him and - I assume - his wife came into my possession. But now they are mine and I am prepared to share them with the world. They are fine figures, serious subjects, people who do not smile … Continue reading Look Into Their Faces And See History
Monochrome Valley
This is an illustration from a book I have yet to write, which - in my own mind, at least - is entitled "Monochrome Valley". It shows Bank Bottom in Halifax in the early 1970s. Square Church spire and Halifax Parish Church fight to be seen through the industrial smoke. I have a feeling that … Continue reading Monochrome Valley
The Tower On The Rocks
This strange little vintage postcard has an awful lot of white border and a somewhat anonymous rural scene, that could be here, there or almost anywhere. It only becomes of interest when the message on the reverse is read. It is addressed to Stanley Nunn Esq of Mandeville Road, Enfield in North London. You need … Continue reading The Tower On The Rocks
Pink Stone And Blue Cobbles
This is a somewhat colourful picture postcard of the Victoria Hall in Halifax which dates from the first decade of the 20th century. Such cards were hand-coloured, and one can suppose that the colourful imagination of the colourist got the better of them on this occasion. The card was sent to Mr G H Smith … Continue reading Pink Stone And Blue Cobbles
Stone Trough, Stone Dead
This is a new scan of a photograph I took over 50 years ago, and it shows the Halifax Charity Gala parade in 1965 passing the old Ramsden's Stone Trough Brewery building (RIP) at Ward's End, with the ever-present Victoria Theatre in the mid-distance.
Lunevale
It is my birthday today, so it is a perfect excuse for a birthday selfie. This photograph - and no, it is not a selfie - must have been taken almost sixty years ago, and I am pictured on the brow of the appropriately named Lunevale, which was the ferry that ran from Fleetwood to Knott … Continue reading Lunevale
Fowler’s Album
My interest in vintage postcards started sixty or more years ago when, as a child, I would be taken to visit my mother's Uncle Fowler. Whilst the grown-ups talked, I would look through the album of old picture postcards he had. When he died, the album came to my mother, who - knowing my interest … Continue reading Fowler’s Album
