I remember taking this photograph a few years ago. At first, I had a bit of a bad feeling about it. As I entered the very long, very dark and very deserted old walkway under the railway line at the bottom end of Halifax, there was a young bloke in a hoody walking a very … Continue reading How A Bad Feeling Turned Into A Good Feeling In Downtown Halifax
Love’s Cigarette!
I 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 but that is another story best left until after the watershed) and I dipped into that to find something suitably uplifting. In amongst his music is a small … Continue reading Love’s Cigarette!
Solid (In A Liquid Sort Of Way)
The Hebble Brook is a funny old thing. It's not in your face, showy, or boastful; in fact, it prefers to keep itself hidden away as far as possible. It makes few demands: a concrete bridge here and there, the odd culvert or two. It just goes on doing its job, carrying water from up … Continue reading Solid (In A Liquid Sort Of Way)
A Paper Portal To The Past
If there is one thing you would have needed in 1919, it is a bit of a tonic. The memories of the carnage on the fields of Flanders are still raw, and the influenza epidemic is now picking off many of the people who survived. So this old photographic postcard from exactly 100 years ago … Continue reading A Paper Portal To The Past
Auntie Annie
Annie Elizabeth was born in February 1903, the second daughter of my grandparents Enoch and Harriet Burnett. Like all young working class girls born in Bradford at the start of the twentieth century she was destined for the mill - Bradford was regarded as the world centre of the worsted industry - and she will … Continue reading Auntie Annie
Silo Tagging
This is unmistakably Brighouse: the giant Sugden Flour silos are as an effective geotag as any map reference. These two concrete monoliths appear almost timeless, but when I took this photo in 1970, one was just seven years old and the other only a few years older. Many of those buildings and chimneys have now … Continue reading Silo Tagging
Cyborgraphy
Today’s scene started life as an overcrowded and somewhat over-coloured back street off Thornton Road in Bradford. Post-messing, I managed to get rid of the cars and tone it down a bit. Artificial intelligence is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?
19 August 2024 : Gala Looks
I took this photo at the Halifax Charity Gala nearly sixty years ago, and it still gives me pleasure now. There are so many things going on, so much social history on display, so many eyes looking in so many directions. The face of the little girl, bottom left, makes the picture complete.
15 August 2024 : Beacons
They used to hang bodies up there, or light beacons to warn of invading Spanish armadas or French onion sellers. They had fancy beacons to shine down on the folk of Halifax below. What they should have had, however, was a good old cast iron gas light, that would have been a beacon befitting Halifax … Continue reading 15 August 2024 : Beacons
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