The true delight of old family photographs is that they can take you back in time, not just to the years of your youth, but to those impossibly distant times before you were born. Here is a photograph of a group of people posing in front of a large stone structure with a lighthouse in … Continue reading Half Formed Memories
Category: Family Photographs
Inconsequential Photographs
You can't beat inconsequential photographs: photos without any great meaning or purpose. You can wander around them at leisure, stopping off to look at half a car here or a faded billboard there. You can ask questions without the need of answers - what is that train doing in the middle of the road? Uncle … Continue reading Inconsequential Photographs
Auntie Annie
Annie Elizabeth was born in February 1903, the second daughter of my grandparents Enoch and Harriet Burnett. Like all young working class girls born in Bradford at the start of the twentieth century she was destined for the mill - Bradford was regarded as the world centre of the worsted industry - and she will … Continue reading Auntie Annie
Can’t See The Moores For The Trees
This family photograph from the 1930s perfectly captures a marriage of style and elegance. It also captures a marriage between two people, but I am a little uncertain as to who they are. The one person I can identify is the man seated second from the left, the man with a hairstyle of sculptured grandeur, … Continue reading Can’t See The Moores For The Trees
Happy Birthday
Making the love of my life the subject of my daily calendar on her birthday fulfils two important objectives. It reminds me not to forget her birthday, which, after more than half a century together, I'm still capable of doing. It also provides me with a birthday card I can print off and hand to … Continue reading Happy Birthday
Selfie Portrait
I'm not sure who the subject of this studio portrait from the 1920s is, but it was part of a batch of distant family photographs. You don't see that many portraits in these selfie-obsessed times we live in, which is a shame because portraits are more likely to show people as they are rather than … Continue reading Selfie Portrait
Albert And Rose
All praise those sainted mortals who, When given a photo know what to do. With pencilled words small and clear, Discreetly say on the photos rear Whether it's Jack or Joe or God only knows Or in this case, Great Uncle Albert and his wife, Rose.
Enoch & Betty
A date stamp on the reverse of this studio portrait of my grandfather, Enoch Burnett, gives me a precise date - the 18th November 1928. At the time, Enoch will have been 51 years old and working as a window cleaner in Great Horton, Bradford. He is joined in this portrait by his dog, Betty, … Continue reading Enoch & Betty
Kids Those Days
The photograph dates from 1948 and was taken outside our house in Great Horton, Bradford. My brother, Roger, is the one just below the letter box and I am not sure about the identity of the others. I was just about arriving in the world at the time the photo was taken. My question relates … Continue reading Kids Those Days
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