This is a sight familiar to a whole generation of Halifax folk. I took the photo from on top of Godley Bridge, but you got the same view from the front seat of a Corporation bus. There was something quite cinematic about the constrained view as the bus made its way up Godley Cutting, and … Continue reading Crowning Glory
Category: Calendar
Picturesque Scenes
Driving through the Yorkshire Dales last weekend, you didn't have to seek out picturesque scenes, they formed disorderly queues in order to present themselves to you. Around almost every corner would be a history-steeped bridge over a stone-stepped brook, flanked by pubs that would tempt a Son of Temperance. This example was in the village … Continue reading Picturesque Scenes
Needing A Measure
My mother's uncle, the splendidly named Fowler Beanland, was a great bowling enthusiast, and this is one of his photographs. It has a caption - Bowling At Devonshire Park, Keighley - but no date. I know that he lived, worked - and bowled - up in Cumbria in the early years of the twentieth century, … Continue reading Needing A Measure
Yorkshire Day
I took this photograph of Halifax nearly sixty years ago. I have used it as one of my calendar images before, but that was back in 2021, and, anyway, the rules say that I can use the same image more than once if it is Yorkshire Day. So celebrate this Yorkshire Day with me overlooking … Continue reading Yorkshire Day
Shadow Boxing
Last weekend I drove south through the Yorkshire Dales National Park on a day when the sun and the clouds promoted shadow boxing matches between the moors and hills. Unable to stop and take the photograph I sensed was waiting to be taken, I had to wait until I got home and play around with … Continue reading Shadow Boxing
Marching, Throwing And Flowing
The fine proportions of Halifax's Victoria Hall, the town's monument to culture. In the 1950s, I remember seeing a Scottish pipe band march down the theatre aisles during a colour slide presentation about the beauties of the Highlands. In the 60s, I saw endless wrestlers thrown from its canvas-floored, rope-encircled ring, and in the 70s, … Continue reading Marching, Throwing And Flowing
From Rumtickle To Cheese Bottom
I took this photo several years ago, and I'm not sure whether age has mellowed it or some random Photoshop filter has done it for me. Who cares? This is the gloriously named Rumtickle Viaduct that used to carry the Sheffield to Manchester railway over the valley between the equally gloriously named Cheese Bottom and … Continue reading From Rumtickle To Cheese Bottom
Questions And Answers
The street light poses a question - do we replace unsuitable old housing with unsuitable new housing? Can you throw light on the answer?
Industrial Gravestones
If you walk the cobbled streets of Halifax and other Yorkshire towns, you are surrounded by industrial gravestones, memorials to an age now gone, inscribed with the familiar names - the Crossleys, Akroyds, Shaws, and Crowthers. Beware of nostalgia - these were rarely happy places; more often they were temples to muck, work, sweat and … Continue reading Industrial Gravestones
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