Band In The Rain

Ovenden School Band, Halifax This is another of my Halifax photographs from the late 1960s or the early 1970s. I'm not sure what caught my eye at the time: possibly the band playing in the rain, maybe the two men (teachers?) engaged in an earnest discussion. I'd like to think it was the Alfred Hitchcock … Continue reading Band In The Rain

Halifax Shapes

HALIFAX MARKET (c1968) I think I took this photograph in Halifax Borough Market over fifty years ago. I can't be sure: what with a memory as grainy as my negatives and an incomplete on-line database of market stall holders. However, L Chapman's sounds familiar, and, anyway, these are Halifax shapes. The taut headscarves, the Summer … Continue reading Halifax Shapes

Donkey Hill, Halifax

This cobbled way which runs from Old Lane up to Woodside in Halifax, is popularly known as Donkey Hill, although you will probably have difficulty finding that name used on any official map. Countless generations of Halifax folk have memories of sledging down the steep hill as children in winters, and early morning walks to … Continue reading Donkey Hill, Halifax

The Great Wall Of Northowram

Howes Lane, Northowram This is another of my photographs taken in Howes Lane, Northowram around fifty years or so ago. This time it is looking towards the head of Shibden Valley, in the direction of Ambler Thorn. The photograph captures one of the great walls of Northowram, a huge stone structure built to enclose a … Continue reading The Great Wall Of Northowram

Repetitive Overspill

Halifax and Shibden Valley (c1967) As I trawl through my old photographs I frequently discover the same scene captured again and again - at different times, in different seasons and different years. Often this is not a conscious thing: at the time I can't remember having taking the same photograph before - it is only … Continue reading Repetitive Overspill

A Patch Of Land

This is a photograph showing the lower part of Halifax, which I must have taken in the 1960s. There is a mist - or perhaps a fog - clinging to the town and making it sufficiently difficult to pinpoint actual buildings, there is an element of challenge about it. What can be clearly seen are … Continue reading A Patch Of Land

Memories, Thick And Fast

This certainly isn't my best photograph from the 1960s - there's a bit of camera shake, the developing was more miss than hit, and it was a dark, wet, misty day to start out with. But what it lacks in photographic quality, it makes up in part with atmosphere. As I look at it now, … Continue reading Memories, Thick And Fast

Old Photo, Old Bank, Old Friends

The last shot in this particular sequence of negatives from fifty years ago focuses on people rather than places; but still has a fair amount to tell us about changes to Halifax over the last half century. I think I must have taken this picture from Old Bank, which was the cobbled road that ran … Continue reading Old Photo, Old Bank, Old Friends

Rainbow Ripples In The Old Mill Stream

I posted one of my old photographs, of Fletchers' Mill in Halifax, to the Old Halifax Facebook Group yesterday. It's an image I have featured on this Blog before, but it was new to the Old Halifax Group. Several people wrote in with memories of the mill. Someone in particular mentioned that the waste dyes from the … Continue reading Rainbow Ripples In The Old Mill Stream