Sorting through some recently acquired papers of my Great Uncle Albert, I find his driving licence from 1912. This was a time when licences were issued by local authorities (in this case, Bradford), and had to be renewed every year.
Mrs Hewison’s Drawing
When she was 13 years old in March 1920, my fathers' cousin, Ivy Miriam Burnett, was given an autograph book. It is full of those little poems - some silly, some uplifting - that have populated such books over the years. It also contains a number of drawings; this one contributed by Mrs Hewison of … Continue reading Mrs Hewison’s Drawing
Ivy The Musician
There are the faces you can't put names to and then there are the names you don't have a face for. Yesterday, however, after a trip to meet a generous distant relative in Wales, I was finally able to put a face to my father's cousin Ivy Miriam Burnett. And not only did I get … Continue reading Ivy The Musician
Headscarves In Halifax
Sometimes it is the poor photos, the blurred photos, the crumpled and skew-whiff photos, that seem to capture the mood and feeling of a time better than the most pinprick sharp compositions. I took this in Halifax in 1965 - that's the Borough Market in the background - and it sings of its era. If … Continue reading Headscarves In Halifax
Eunice And Leslie
Any box of old family photographs contains pictures of people you recognise and a few that you don’t. Those are the challenges, the pieces of the jig-saw puzzle that don’t easily fit. Who were Eunice and Leslie, and why do I have two copies of this same photograph; one dedicated to Peggy and the other … Continue reading Eunice And Leslie
A Super-Charged Excursion To Northowram
I am not sure whether it was the headline about Halifax's super-charged bus, or the photograph of a collection of trilby wearing municipal leaders gathered around a Halifax Corporation double decker, which caught my attention - but whichever it was, my attention was caught. Having spent a fair amount of my youth waiting for such … Continue reading A Super-Charged Excursion To Northowram
The Soot-Black Horse
I'm still in Halifax, and it's still 1965 (or perhaps 1966). The White Horse is anything but white, nor is it sand-stone clean as it is today. It has Halifax's industrial past seared into its surface, and the man by the lamp post is weighed down by too much work and not enough life.
A Moveable School
I remember walking down Wade Street in Halifax as a young man (en rout to the Brewers’ Cellar pub which was famous for its liberal interpretation of the licensing laws). It was a dark and dismal street and I have no recollection of passing the fine 1846 Sunday School building that dominates the street today. … Continue reading A Moveable School
Auditors Report (Blossom)
AUDITORS REPORT (BLOSSOM) : Once again nature gets its production targets wrong resulting in a massive over production of Spring blossom with piles of it just littering the ground and going to waste. This is inefficiency at its worst. Glorious, unnecessary, uneconomical inefficiency.
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