I spent a fair amount of yesterday in Sheffield and Barnsley, so this seems to be a suitable calendar image for today. It's 40 years since I took it, but still the skyline will be familiar to those who know Sheffield.

Detail from a 10,000 Pengo banknote issued by the Hungarian government in July 1945. At the time, Hungary was suffering from hyper-inflation and the note became worthless within a few days of being issued.

A classic image from a classic vintage postcard, which was posted to a Miss B York of Doncaster on the 21st June 1904. The message was intriguingly simple: "Let me know how Aunt Sally goes on". I'm not sure about Aunt Sally, but Miss Louie Pounds, the actress depicted on the front of the card, … Continue reading Let Me Know How Aunt Sally Goes On

Memories are rarely in sharp focus, especially memories from half a century ago. Time, places and people all get blurred in the transition between a captured moment and a captured memory. I can't remember taking this photograph, but I know the three subjects, and, I suspect at least two of them will be reading this.

I suspect that I took this photograph in Queensgate Market, Huddersfield (it's the only market with an adjacent Peel Street I can think of). The date will have been somewhere in the range 1980-82.

My Great Uncle Albert contributed this charming and somewhat bizarre warning against the dangers of lead paint in his teenage daughter's autograph book 100 years ago. The poem was actually written by American novelist and humorist, Charles Heber Clark, and has even more disturbing verses to it. There is even a musical version of it, … Continue reading Willie Had A Purple Monkey

Elland from Hullenedge, 1983 with adjustments in 2023 : Of course it wasn't as green as this, but a certain amount of dramatic licence is surely allowed.

It's a lifetime and a half ago; a different time and a different place. I'm a tutor taking a group of Doncaster mature students on a visit to Westminster. We pause and I take the obligatory photograph. It is 10.42am. It's a lifetime and a half ago.

Take a ride along the seashore on Tom Thumb’s Fire Engine. Whilst others look out to sea, cloth-capped and apprehensive, the children smile with anticipated pleasure. This, however, is the 1930s.