Christmas is a time for good cheer, festive gatherings, and seasonal entertainment treats: and what better Christmas treat could you imagine than a concert by the Lancashire Bell Ringers! This is the prospect that was on offer to the citizens of Halifax back in 1843, when "lovers of music and novelty" were "earnestly solicited to … Continue reading The Theatre Will Be Well Aired
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A Pocket Exhibition Of Elland
One hundred years ago, picture postcards were the equivalent of Facebook, Twitter or the like. If you had a quick message or greeting to send to a friend, pick up a postcard, string together a couple of sentences, and pop a penny stamp on the back.Because some of these postcards have been saved - kept … Continue reading A Pocket Exhibition Of Elland
A Faded Version Of A Faded Memory
The provenance of this picture of Commercial Street in Halifax is interesting. It started life as one of the "real photograph" postcards from the golden age of picture postcards in the years leading up to the First World War, Fifty or sixty years later it was republished by the Halifax Courier as part of a … Continue reading A Faded Version Of A Faded Memory
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.
Backdrop
The second in my series "Looking Back At Halifax" is in this week's Halifax Courier. This week I look at changes in the dramatic backdrop to the town - Beacon Hill.
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.
Halifax Before The Earth Moved
This started as another of those "where was I standing when I took this" mysteries. The photograph dates from the 1970s, and the quest for my vantage point wasn't helped by the dubious quality of the old negative. Clearly that is Halifax in the distance and there are enough stone-spires and brick-blocks visible to begin … Continue reading Halifax Before The Earth Moved
Doesn’t It Look Grand?
The splendid British Newspaper Archives has just added copies of the 19th century Building News and Engineering Journal. Look what turned up in an 1891 issue - Halifax's New Market and Arcade. Doesn't it look grand! Here's the introductory article. What a bargain for £40,000. True Victorian levelling-up at its best.
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