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
Category: Calendar
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
14 August 2024 : Green
100 years ago you would have had difficulty seeing the hills that surround Halifax because of the smoke and the smog. 50 years ago you would have seen them but they would have been bare and battle-scarred, testament to what industry can do to land. Now they are green with stone-coloured highlights. You can say … Continue reading 14 August 2024 : Green
13 August 2024 : Patterns
The second of the series of photos taken while waiting for my wife to emerge from the dentist's. These are the steps leading up to Broad Street Plaza in Halifax - a delightfully curve-less concrete and steel prospect that faces off against the classical elegance of Halifax's Victorian Town Hall on the other side of … Continue reading 13 August 2024 : Patterns
The Imaginary Archaeologist
I like to think of myself as an archaeologist of images (or an imaginary archaeologist if you prefer). I like nothing better than digging up old pictures, dusting them off, and bringing them back to life to see what they can tell us about times gone by. We are not talking about the equivalent of … Continue reading The Imaginary Archaeologist
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