This is not one of my photos: I suspect it was taken by my wife's uncle. It is a view over Elland from Dewsbury Road as it makes its way up Upper Edge. It must date from the 1960s or early 70s, the period before the construction of Elland by-pass which, today, cuts across this … Continue reading Background Fit
Category: Calendar
Sometimes
Sometimes there is no point to be made, no memories to be revived, and no surprises to be released. Sometimes there is just a nice view and the chance to step back and appreciate it. This is just down the road from where I live. This is grand.
Gog Hill
Gog Hill used to be an important thoroughfare in Elland, cobble-climbing from Elland Bridge up the steep hillside to the top of the town. It was lined by houses that clung to the hillside with stoney determination. For many years it has been abandoned by everything but empty lager cans and cheap thrills. The signs … Continue reading Gog Hill
A Bit Of a Mystery
I have the negatives to some 13,000 pictures I took before my switch to digital images 25 years ago. As I slowly work my way through these - scanning the negatives and turning them into digital images - I can recognise most of the locations. This one, however, is a bit of a mystery. A … Continue reading A Bit Of a Mystery
Home Bargains
One is tempted to go on about the fall of Parliament, but this is merely the fall of Parliament Street, which was between Gibbet Street and Pellon Lane in Halifax. I must have taken this photograph in the late 1960s or early 70s after the houses had been cleared and before they vanished forever, to … Continue reading Home Bargains
The Delivery
This photo comes from one of the piles of photographs of unknown origin which are gradually taking over my room: my Found Photographs. It shows a man with a horse and cart delivering what I assume is milk. I have no idea where or when it was taken, but that doesn't matter; it is life … Continue reading The Delivery
New Month, New Interpretation
The start of a new month and the start of a new season (meteorologically speaking). Here is a new interpretation of a photograph I originally took some 16 years ago of Shepherds Thorn Lane where I have walked a succession of dogs over the last twenty-five years. New month, new interpretation - same old beauty.
Halifax Faces
Towards the end of the 19th century, most towns would have at least one professional photographer's studio. It was a time when ordinary people began to have their photos taken, and such photographs - in the form of small "carte de visites" or slightly larger "cabinet cards" - became family treasures. The studios were keen … Continue reading Halifax Faces
Antiquity And Modernity
I seem to remember - although it was almost sixty years ago - I was trying to capture the contrast between the antiquity of the statues in People's Park, Halifax, and the modernity of what was then Percival Whitley College in the background. Now the bits of that building that remain within the shell of … Continue reading Antiquity And Modernity