Category: Old Halifax

Prospect Of Brighouse

I don't know what I was thinking when I took this photo - it was a very long time ago. Perhaps it was the end of a film, and I managed to squeeze in an extra shot; perhaps the view looked clearer than it turned out to be. My "Prospect Of Brighouse" managed to capture … Continue reading Prospect Of Brighouse

Minster Memories

Sorting through some old photographs of mine from half a century or more ago, I came across this one of the then Halifax Parish Church (now, Halifax Minster). Dating the photograph is tricky - the fabric of the church itself hasn't changed all that much in centuries. The real time-stamp is, of course, Beacon Hill … Continue reading Minster Memories

A Pint In Paris

Although I took this photograph over forty years ago, not all that much has changed in the intervening years. The signage on the Shears Inn has changed, along with the chimney pots, and there is a good deal more vegetation around these days. It is, however, still worth wandering down from Halifax town centre to … Continue reading A Pint In Paris

Plastic Skittle

Ask me for one of my most endearing visual memories of Halifax in the 1960s and 70s and I’d say the 14 foot high plastic bowling pin that graced the top of the Halifax Bowl at the junction of Broad Street and Orange Street. It seems like it was one of the most permanent features … Continue reading Plastic Skittle

Remember?

I may well remember, remember the fifth of November, but, for the life of me, I can't quite remember where I took this photograph. In my defence, I could add that it was almost sixty years ago and the building was on its last legs then. I have a feeling it was on the hillside … Continue reading Remember?

Reflections On Bull Green

I walked up to Bull Green roundabout the other day to pass the time of day only to discover it wasn't there anymore. One gets used to this kind of thing as one gets older, but even so, it was a bit of a shock. To mark its passing - and the end of October … Continue reading Reflections On Bull Green

Bleak Shivers

I took this photograph in Akroyd Place, Halifax, in the early 1970s. It was fairly bleak and somewhat ominous even then. Fifteen or so years earlier, I remember being bussed to the Akroyd Place School Baths when it was even bleaker. I still have involuntary shivers when I pass where it used to be.

Change In Siddal

Like so many pictures of these parts from a century or more ago, much has changed in this view of Siddal near Halifax from an old picture postcard. So many of the buildings - the houses, factories, and schools - have gone, and the canal has long since been abandoned. The backdrop remains relatively unchanged, … Continue reading Change In Siddal

Concentrated Nostalgia

Brown paper bags, pounds, shilling, and pence, headscarves and overcoats - it's almost as though someone had bought a tube of concentrated nostalgia and squeezed it all over this photograph of mine of Halifax Borough Market back in the 1960s. And if they really did sell tubes of concentrated nostalgia, you would have been sure … Continue reading Concentrated Nostalgia