Category: Family Photographs

Six Tented Heads

Six Tented Heads : Bradford c1928 Our Sepia Saturday theme image this week features a man stood outside a tent. My contribution is six men  inside a tent - and to add to the numerical complexity of the situation, the tent is tent number four. The one man in the theme image was, it appears, … Continue reading Six Tented Heads

The Burnett Family

This is the only photograph I have of my grandparents and their four children. It must have been taken in 1917, when my father, Albert (in the sailor suit), was just six years old. His elder brother, John, was behind him in the photograph, dressed in his uniform and about to leave for France. My … Continue reading The Burnett Family

Memories Within Cardboard Confines

Is it just age that makes you far more susceptible to time travel? Sometimes it can be a word like advocaat, sometimes a pattern like the geometric madness of 1960s wallpapers; most times it is an image.  These two photographs were taken at a Christmas Party at my parent's house, sometime around 1965. They are … Continue reading Memories Within Cardboard Confines

Addressing Colour

When you add colour to an old photograph - or rather when some artificial intelligence source sat high in cyberspace adds colour to an old photograph - you tend to notice things more. This is an old photo of my mother and my grandfather which must date from either the 1930s or the 1940s - … Continue reading Addressing Colour

A Look

In the midst of busy family photographs, you sometimes find a special moment: a look, a touch, a smile that can scream down the generations and remind you that the great thing about common humanity is that it is common to all.  This photograph was taken shortly after my brother, Roger, was born in 1943. … Continue reading A Look

Leather Settees And Decorative Bournemouth

I am not sure which seaside this "seaside snap" from the 1930s was taken at. If it was any other member of my family I would say Bridlington, Scarborough , Blackpool, or - if they were being adventurous - Skegness. This, however, is Auntie Annie (left) and Uncle Harry (second from left), and they led a … Continue reading Leather Settees And Decorative Bournemouth

The Scent Of Heritage

This is a photograph from forty years ago of Cannon Mills in Great Horton, Bradford. It is a hundred yards away from where my father was born and grew up. It is a mile away from where I was born and spent the first four years of my life. And yet, I hardly know the … Continue reading The Scent Of Heritage

Artificial Intelligence And The Fieldhouses

I was sorting through some old family photographs yesterday, and I came across this somewhat sombre study of two, somewhat distant, relatives: Wilson and Clara Fieldhouse. They were the parents of my Uncle Frank and they lived their life in Bradford, Yorkshire. I never met them, and they may well have been perfectly charming people … Continue reading Artificial Intelligence And The Fieldhouses

Cast-Iron History

My Grandfather and Great Uncle Fowler made these machines in Keighley. My mother and numerous aunties worked on these machines in Bradford. My Uncle Wilf sorted wool to be spun by them; my father shifted bobbins between them. My entire family history is constrained by their cast-iron frames.