Sheffield is built on hills and therefore back yards are often more like back cliff faces. This was the back yard of the house we lived in forty years ago: big enough for a dustbin and a pushbike. Washing hung like kites, getting ready to launch once a decent breeze got up, destined for the … Continue reading Kites To Rotherham
Taking The Edge Of Tragedy
It seems so strange to see a Latin gravestone. Perhaps in Westminster Abbey or some don-filled university necropolis; but in the churchyard at Coley, within soot-falling distance of an old mill. And so beautifully carved; as though the beauty of the carving could somehow disguise the horror of a death too early. Moss now grows … Continue reading Taking The Edge Of Tragedy
Addressing Colour
When you add colour to an old photograph - or rather when some artificial intelligence source sat high in cyberspace adds colour to an old photograph - you tend to notice things more. This is an old photo of my mother and my grandfather which must date from either the 1930s or the 1940s - … Continue reading Addressing Colour
Quot estis in convivio
The boar's head in hand bear I Bedeck'd with bays and rosemary And I pray you, my masters, be merry Quot estis in convivio For 130 years it has looked down on Southgate, Halifax from above where the Boars Head Hotel used to be. I remember it smiling down from above the then Berni Inn: … Continue reading Quot estis in convivio
Jurassic Park Road, Elland
Valley Mill, Park Road, Elland We took a walk down by Elland Bridge yesterday and saw the strangest thing. The old Halifax Zoo used to be just up the hill from here, and stories abound of escaped animals wandering through Elland Woods. We all know of the famous meandering bear .... but a dinosaur!!
Get A Life
Well, there you go - doesn't three months go quickly when you have nothing better to do than produce your own daily calendar. When I started the project, I thought it might last a week or two - a month at the most, but now I am surrounded by calendar pages, and I have posted … Continue reading Get A Life
“Little Housewives” Learn How To Boil An Egg!
My room is packed from floor to ceiling with boxes full of old photos, old newspapers, old writings and old memories. Occasionally I randomly dip into a box and scan what emerges. Today it is a copy of the New Penny Magazine from - as far as I can make out - about 1898. It … Continue reading “Little Housewives” Learn How To Boil An Egg!
Who, What, Where?
I have always had a fondness for old photographs, and I am lucky to have lived long enough for my new photos to have become, themselves, examples of the genre. The emergence of Facebook local history groups has changed the nature of pictorial history, moving it from the arena of relatively obscure printed books and … Continue reading Who, What, Where?
You Can’t Beat Tradition
The Theakston family have a long tradition of brewing in the North Yorkshire town of Masham, the original brewery having been founded getting on for two hundred years ago. I have a long tradition of taking photographs of pubs and breweries, these photographs of the Masham brewery and the nearby White Bear Hotel, were taken … Continue reading You Can’t Beat Tradition
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