The chance discovery of an illustration in an old newspaper, brings to light a troubled time in the history of Halifax. The illustration - Scene at North Bridge, Halifax - appeared in the Illustrated London News of the 27th August 1842, and it shows thousand of protestors on North Bridge coming under attack by armed … Continue reading It Is Doubtful How Long Peace May Be Preserved
Author: Alan Burnett
Magical Moments In The Digital Developing Dish
When I fell in love with photography sixty years ago, one of the great delights was that magic moment when a print would slowly emerge in the darkroom developing dish. The closest to it these days is seeing a digital image emerge following the application of some complex filtering process. This print started life as … Continue reading Magical Moments In The Digital Developing Dish
DAYS : Snow, Light And With Love From Mary
Weighed Down By The Weather: Occasionally the weather likes to remind you that, whatever plans you have, whatever places you need to go, it can over-rule the lot. It might be March but the snow fell with a vengeance and coated the ground, the trees, and even the washing line. As well as there being … Continue reading DAYS : Snow, Light And With Love From Mary
First Cousin To A Forgotten Memory
The advent of artificial intelligence driven photographic software means that we can now all play around with colouring the past. Such experiments have differing levels of success: sometimes we get a stunning insight into the real beauty of great-auntie Gertie, other times we give our grandfathers purple beards and pink dungarees! Such artificial colourisation is … Continue reading First Cousin To A Forgotten Memory
Dear Daley, Not!
I bought this old picture postcard of Elm Cottages which still stand on Bradford Road between Brighouse and Bailiff Bridge because of the subject matter. The photograph captures landscape I am very familiar with, but captures it 100 years in the past. For those who live in these parts it is full of fascinating detail - the tramlines on … Continue reading Dear Daley, Not!
Daily Calendar : Chairs, Bikes and Steep Hills (4-6 March 2023)
Taken about 40 years ago in Weston Park, Sheffield. Take a seat, move it about, make a pattern. Delivery Boy. Found Photo. This is possibly one of the children of William G Pannett, baker and confectioner, of Horsham, Sussex. Sheffield should be twinned with San Francisco. Sheffield has the trams and the hills: and the … Continue reading Daily Calendar : Chairs, Bikes and Steep Hills (4-6 March 2023)
Cleaning Up The Town Hall
In dating pictures of old Halifax, there are certain events that - rather like the destruction of the dinosaurs in geological times - mark the changeover between major epochs. One such event was the stone cleaning of Halifax Town Hall, bringing about its transition from soot-black to golden-stone, in 1972.
Mary The Beekeeper And The Flight Of Fancy Simulator
The thing about playing around with old, lost and forgotten photographs is that it provides a vigorous workout for the imagination. It is like a well equipped gym of thoughtfulness set inside a state of the art flight of fancy simulator. You can look at a picture that stopped time a century or more ago … Continue reading Mary The Beekeeper And The Flight Of Fancy Simulator
Old Photo, Old Lane, Old Tom
I must have taken this photograph of the Old Lane Inn, Halifax in the mid 1960s, by which time it had already closed (it briefly came back to life as Dicky Mints 20 years later). The monumental bottle of beer painted on the gable wall should have been listed and saved for posterity. The illustration … Continue reading Old Photo, Old Lane, Old Tom
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