There's enough scrap iron visible in this photo of mine from the late '60s or early '70s to keep a Scunthorpe blast furnace busy. It was taken looking down Blackledge, Halifax, towards Beacon Hill in the background. These days, the stone has been cleaned up, and there is half a forest lining the hillside. The … Continue reading Patterns In The Street
Category: Old Halifax
A Pre-Burdock Prospect
Scanning some of my old negatives from fifty-plus years ago, I come across one I haven't featured before. You could run an entire pub quiz for folk of a certain age who grew up in the Halifax area on this image alone. It is pre-Burdock (as we say in these parts) but only just so: … Continue reading A Pre-Burdock Prospect
Curving Away
We are back with the reality of the old after yesterday's brief flirtation with the imagined future! I always call this particular photo of mine (dating from around 1980) "Halifax Before Eureka," as it shows the spot where the Eureka National Children's Museum was later built. The curve of the railway line heads away from … Continue reading Curving Away
Surveying The Change
A photograph from the early 198os showing my father watching, somewhat wistfully, as the last remnants of the old Charlestown Railway Viaduct in Halifax are being demolished. This leaves him with a clear view of the Albion Mills and Bailey Hall factories of John Mackintosh, where he spent the last 25 years of his working … Continue reading Surveying The Change
The Arts And Crafts Town
I've shared this photograph of Blackledge in Halifax before - not on my daily calendar, however - but it warrants a second outing. I think it was about 1982 when I took it, and Beacon Hill was just beginning to gather the verdant covering we are familiar with today. If you ever needed to give … Continue reading The Arts And Crafts Town
A Surrealistic Vision
It is now sixty years since I came across this scene - somewhere above Claremount Road in Halifax if I remember rightly - but it's a sight I'll never forget. It's almost as though someone had carefully composed the scene, bringing together car, cart, bathtub and a couple of old masters in order to create … Continue reading A Surrealistic Vision
Repetitive Halifax
In the best part of the five years I have been sharing my picture-a-day calendar, I have tried to avoid using the same image more than once, but occasionally I have slipped up. I now realise that I used this photo of mine of Halifax in the 1980s back in September 2024. This is a … Continue reading Repetitive Halifax
Steps Into Halifax
I'm not entirely sure which stone staircase in Halifax this was; there were - and there still are - dozens of them: over rivers and railway lines, over roads, and over nothing in particular. We just like steps in these parts; they break the monotony of life, they keep us fit, and they create dramatic … Continue reading Steps Into Halifax
We Love The Hebble Day
The Hebble Brook has an odd relationship with the town of Halifax. Over history, it has had such a defining impact on the town, carving its valleys and draining its hills, and yet now it slips almost unnoticed towards its rendezvous with the Calder - sometimes above ground, sometimes culvert-deep in the darkness. I demand … Continue reading We Love The Hebble Day
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