On a regular trawl through my old negatives, I came across one of my favourite photographs from almost fifty years ago. It shows two young girls with the familiar sights of 1970s Halifax as a backdrop. Those two young girls from all those years ago are still part of my life: I married the one … Continue reading With Halifax As A Backdrop
A Walk Along A Windy Promenade
During the first decade of the twentieth century, when picture postcard collecting became the height of fashion, postcards would often be only loosely based on photographs. The photographic image would be simplified, artificially coloured, pixelated, corrected and prepared for the printing presses; and this would sometimes result in images that were only distant relatives of … Continue reading A Walk Along A Windy Promenade
A Bath, Some Militia, And An Ode To Japan Blacking
As we enter the year 2020, everything in the news is far too depressing to dwell upon. I am therefore taking refuge in the news of the past - if for no other reason, than to confirm that things were just as depressing in the past. Today I am returning 200 years to the 3 … Continue reading A Bath, Some Militia, And An Ode To Japan Blacking
On Two Wheels Through The Thirties
My parents, Albert and Gladys Burnett, spent much of the 1930s on two wheels. They started on a tandem, and then at some point they progressed to a motorbike. At times they flirted with three wheels, but such experiments were short-lived. Once, my father bought a Morgan Super Sports three wheeled car - it had … Continue reading On Two Wheels Through The Thirties
Birthday Greetings From Shrogg’s Park
What better way to end the year than with this fine old picture postcard of Shrogg's Park in Halifax. I had assumed that the two prominent spires in the background were the Town Hall and Square Church, but now I am not too sure. In order to confirm the identity of the spires, I took … Continue reading Birthday Greetings From Shrogg’s Park
Christmas Greetings To All
For my News From Nowhere Christmas Card this year, I have chosen a vintage postcard of a snow-covered Halifax Parish Church, which forms part of my Postcards From Homeseries. I am having some difficulty in pinning down the precise date of the photograph - the postcard had not been used, which removes one means of dating it - … Continue reading Christmas Greetings To All
Letters Patent For Artistic Improvement
According to the scrawled date on the reverse of this Victorian Cabinet Card, it was taken somewhere around the 11th November 1889. The clothing and the photographic style fits well with this date, and we know that the studio - Brown, Barnes & Bell of Liverpool and London - were active at the time. The … Continue reading Letters Patent For Artistic Improvement
Letters From Almondbury
For years I have been fascinated by the decorative tiles in the entrance hall to Wesley Hall in Almondbury, near Huddersfield. They were, no doubt, a memorial to the founders of the church - now they are also a memorial to decorative style.
Stories To Tell From India
This old picture is not exactly from nowhere, but from an album of photographs taken in India in the 1930s. What stories could be told by these nine men?
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