Fruit Inflation And Silhouettes

This is a “Cabinet Card” - a pasteboard-backed Victorian photograph - of an unknown woman sat reading under a tree. I suspect it might be from an amateur photographer - clues being the outdoor location and the lack of studio details on the rear of the card. Halifax Borough Market. Not sure exactly when I … Continue reading Fruit Inflation And Silhouettes

Concrete Days

Today's desktop calendar image takes me back to my days in Sheffield. In the late 1970s we lived in Crookesmoor, and a short walk down Oxford Street would take me to the Upperthorpe flats, where I took this photograph more than 40 years ago. When Burdock Way was built 50 years ago, Pellon Lane and … Continue reading Concrete Days

St James Road

St James Road, Halifax, back in the 1980s. In those days, the bus station was still on the left of the picture, and behind it was (and, sadly, still is) one of the leading contenders for Halifax's ugliest buildings

Rainy Days

One of the advantages of having spent over 60 years taking photographs is that when it is raining outside you can always avoid getting wet and revisit a photo from the past. So here's "one I took earlier" - October 2002 - from Sutcliffe Wood Lane, Brighouse.

Prescience

I came across this whilst scanning some of my old negatives. I took it 40 years ago at the Yorkshire Miners' Gala parade in Doncaster. Given the events of the few years that followed, there is an element of prescience about the image.

Familiar Concerns

100 years ago today, and the adverts in the Halifax Courier reflect familiar concerns. Keep warm this winter with a seal-lined motor coat, protect yourself during the flu season with Dr Beach's Essence, and "no general election is required" if you plump for Crossleys!

Salterhebble

A messed-about version of a photo I originally took back in 1967 which shows the bottom of Salterhebble Hill and Exley Bank. So much has changed : the mill on the right (Nahum's Union Mills) is long gone, and the pub and many of the houses have now gone as well.

Back Street, Bradford

I'm not sure what the official definition of a "back street" is, but this must get pretty close. It's a street leading nowhere other than to the back end of a mill; it's paved in stone cobbles polished by an endless acid drizzle; and it's empty other than for a tired car. I think I … Continue reading Back Street, Bradford