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.

The original photograph was taken almost 40 years ago. There was coal on the beach and a fire somewhere in the distance. The original colours were all a bit odd, so rather than try and correct them, I chose to accentuate them.

It was almost 40 years ago, but I can clearly remember the day. It was early morning, long before anyone else in the holiday cottage had woken up. I was walking on the cliff top, watching the mist drift in from the North Sea. The sea was as calm as a proverbial mill pond. The … Continue reading Robin Hood Goes Fishing

Make of this what you will!

Having been given an old family portrait of an unknown woman by a distant relative, I confidently told her that, armed with the very latest AI-driven facial recognition systems, I would be able to work out who it was. So far my research has brought up three possibilities, all of which are equally unlikely. The … Continue reading Facial Recognition