There was a time - in the 1950s and 60s - when towns like Halifax seemed to be in love with the future. And the future was motor cars: great big metallic, two-toned, chromium-plated beasts that drank petrol with the abandon of an alcoholic. And the garages that sold them were, in the main, bastions … Continue reading Hunger Hill Is Fighting Back

I had a bit of a bad feeling about this one. As I entered the very long, very dark and very deserted old walkway under the railway line there was a young bloke in a hoody walking a very cross looking dog approaching behind me. The shot looking out of the old stone viaduct was … Continue reading How A Bad Feeling Turned Into A Good Feeling in Halifax

One definition of "providence" is "timely preparation for future eventualities". So when they built Providence Place Chapel in Cleckheaton in 1857 they probably thought that if the congregation eventually dwindled they could convert the building into an Indian Restaurant. And so they did.

Now it is a double glazing shop, before that it was a travel agents, but what was it when it was given it's name - The Pygmalion? In classical mythology, Pygmalion was a sculptor who fell in love with a statue he had carved. A clothes shop, perhaps.

My ninth found dollop of history (£1.50 pence from the second-hand shop) features a 1914 vintage postcard from Tewkesbury. I can never resist a postcard of a pub and I will dip deeper into my wallet than normal to buy one. This is a lovely old card featuring the Bell Hotel in Tewkesbury which is … Continue reading A Dozen Dollops Of History – 9 : No Stamp, No Box, No Pint

"Before performing the ceremony assigned him, Mr Anderson assured those present that he appreciated very highly the honour conferred upon him by the committee and his fellow townsmen in the request to lay the memorial stone of the Town Hall. He would much rather have left the duty to some distinguished person from some other … Continue reading Words From Long Ago

Not many people sculpt lion's bottoms. Great stone and marble statues featuring lion's heads are ten a penny, common as muck. But for the fine proportions of a lion's backside you have to wander off the beaten track and look at things from a different perspective.

I took this picture ten years ago and it has lay dormant in my digital files until, by chance, I looked at it yesterday and thought "what a busy scene to have going on beneath your bedroom window" A little research on line revealed that it was the work of an Hungarian sculptor called Alice … Continue reading Apartment du Lux

It's music week this week on Sepia Saturday and the theme image is some old sheet music for some little piece of whimsy called The Violet Polka. I do have a small collection of sheet music I inherited from my Uncle Harry (or "poor Uncle Harry" as he was always referred to in the family … Continue reading Sepia Saturday 269 : A Song, A Smoke And A Sepia Post