Some folks don’t take kindly to electricity pylons, accusing them of ruining what they believe to be “natural” landscapes. Up here, however, there’s nothing natural about these stone mined hills and mill smoked valleys. Pylons are welcome, any day.

A few years ago I went through a phase of buying glass plate negatives off eBay. It was a hit or miss pastime as a good proportion of the purchases would arrive in pieces. Luckily this particular image did not suffer that fate and therefore can provide us with an almost perfect phial of pure … Continue reading The Cyclists

Everyone should have an Uncle Harry in their family. He performed in seaside concert parties in the 1920s and at holiday caravan parks in the 1950s. He played the Working Men's Clubs, grew his hair fashionably long in the 1960s and wore platform shoes to make him look taller. He was frowned upon by the … Continue reading Uncle Harry

I took this photograph in Doncaster Market a few years ago. I think it works rather well as a monochrome image - the lack of colour doesn’t simplify it, it turns it into a pinball machine where your eye is sent skidding from one side to the other.

This is from an odd little album of some 100 photos from the 1920s and 30s that I bought a few weeks ago. I have no idea where the cricket ground is - but knowing the power of social media, no doubt someone will tell me - along with the date and the name of … Continue reading 230 For 6

Take a wall in Sheffield rather badly photographed forty years ago and a sky from a Photoshop filter pack. Add a touch of feeling bored and half watching the TV whilst messing about on my computer - and voila!

Several years ago I bought an old photo album at an antique market. It contained photos taken on a cruise of “The Northern Capitals” in 1925. I decided to republish the album as a book with some background notes on the ship, the cruise and the people. This lovely image is comes from that album. … Continue reading Heading North

By the week beginning 22nd January 1934, my father seems to have been doing nothing but working over and walking. I think that by 1934 he was working in the Engineering Department at Field Sons & Co at Lidget Green, Bradford. He was certainly working there by the late 1930s.

It's the 1980s - and it is Albert Street in Elland if you really want to know - and the car is the time-stamp. Cars of that era were a bit like those double-fronted shunting engines, with bonnet and boot almost interchangeable in terms of design.