You could walk to the top of Shaw Lane in Halifax today and take a photograph similar to this one. I took mine almost half a century ago, but the mills are still standing and the cobbles are still set in the road. The stonework is cleaner these days, and that sense of post-industrial abandonment … Continue reading Set In Stone
Category: Old Halifax
Gone Shopping For History
I know this photo was taken before my time - though, I have to admit, not that much before my time - but I can still identify with the shopfronts on Crown Street, Halifax. H. Samuel was selling lucky wedding rings, Dolcis was helping to give Crown Street its name - “shoe shop street” - and Boots … Continue reading Gone Shopping For History
Earlier
We have friends coming to visit this week - friends of over five decades - who have come to love our little bit of Yorkshire. We will see the sights, revisit familiar places and note the changes, and we will probably take photographs. Here's one I took earlier.
Nostalgia
Ah, those simple summer days of long ago - when Beacon Hill was bare of trees, when charity parades meant kids riding on the back of lorries, when King Street was cobbled, and when mill chimneys still split the sky. (Feel free to insert your own nostalgic meanderings as required.)
Halifax Tram Strike
One rainy Sunday evening in July 1906, the Number 94 tram from Shelf to Halifax ran out of control while coming down New Bank, overturned, and slid over North Bridge. Two passengers were killed and 12 were injured. It is said that the driver, Theodore Chadwick, did all he could to try to slow the … Continue reading Halifax Tram Strike
Escaping The Mill
The telegraph poles provide the date stamp for this photograph of a mill fire escape in Halifax. At some point over the fifty-six years since I took it, I seem to have decided that it was somewhere near Akroyd Place, just outside the town centre. Time, however, has changed the landscape and eroded any meaningful … Continue reading Escaping The Mill
Busy Elland
I can't be exact about the date, but I suspect it was around 1969 or 1970 when I took this photograph. It looks as though I was standing in the grounds of what later became the Barge and Barrel pub, but back then it would have still been the Station Hotel. My photograph captures a … Continue reading Busy Elland
History Preserved
My photograph dates back to the 1960s and shows the Mobil petrol station on Winding Road, Halifax. The garage was built on the site of the Old Crispin Inn, which dated back to the 1840s. That inn was itself built on the site of an even older Crispin Inn, a famed meeting place of local … Continue reading History Preserved
Sowerby Bridge Station
I must confess that I don't remember the old Sowerby Bridge Station, although I'm sure I must have seen it before it burned down in the late 1970s. If this picture-postcard view is anything to go by, it was a rather grand affair - certainly in a different class from the functional, minimalist building that … Continue reading Sowerby Bridge Station
