A photograph of mine of Halifax in the early 1960s. The Town Hall was still soot-encrusted, the cars parked outside the White Swan Hotel had an over-abundance of chrome, and Pohlmann's still sold pianos.
Category: Old Halifax
Quot estis in convivio
The boar's head in hand bear I Bedeck'd with bays and rosemary And I pray you, my masters, be merry Quot estis in convivio For 130 years it has looked down on Southgate, Halifax from above where the Boars Head Hotel used to be. I remember it smiling down from above the then Berni Inn: … Continue reading Quot estis in convivio
Jurassic Park Road, Elland
Valley Mill, Park Road, Elland We took a walk down by Elland Bridge yesterday and saw the strangest thing. The old Halifax Zoo used to be just up the hill from here, and stories abound of escaped animals wandering through Elland Woods. We all know of the famous meandering bear .... but a dinosaur!!
Who, What, Where?
I have always had a fondness for old photographs, and I am lucky to have lived long enough for my new photos to have become, themselves, examples of the genre. The emergence of Facebook local history groups has changed the nature of pictorial history, moving it from the arena of relatively obscure printed books and … Continue reading Who, What, Where?
Brighouse River And Bank
This photograph of mine of Brighouse from fifty or more years ago has always been one of my favourites, and for years I have assume that it was taken from River Street, looking west towards the town. Stuck in the fag-end of lockdown, I have little better to do with my time these days but … Continue reading Brighouse River And Bank
Grass Is Green, Sky Is Blue
To prove a point I made yesterday, here is a hand-coloured postcard view the Lock-keepers cottage at Salterhebble from around 1905. The artificial intelligence behind this bit of colouring would have been a studio artist, but they would have worked on the same basis as their modern AI equivalent: grass is green, sky is blue, … Continue reading Grass Is Green, Sky Is Blue
50 Shades Of Reality
An old negative of mine from 50 years ago with a dusting of colour provided by some Artificial Intelligence App. The results of such experiments remind me of the artificial colouring of vintage postcards during the first decade of the twentieth century: the results are not exactly accurate, but are attractive to the eye and … Continue reading 50 Shades Of Reality
Britannia Over Elland
For over a century, Britannia has sat on top of the old bank building and the end of Elland Bridge, flanked by columns of Aberdeen granite, two pubs, and a host of mill chimneys. Whether she was looking at the old gas works, watching the traffic of the new by-pass or scanning Elland Woods - … Continue reading Britannia Over Elland
A Comet Over Halifax
A couple of years worth of copies of a newspaper called "The Halifax Comet" have just been added to the collection of the ever-splendid British Newspaper Archives, and as I had never heard of this newspaper, I was anxious to dive in and see what it was like. I would like to report back and … Continue reading A Comet Over Halifax
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