Style

Our Sepia Saturday theme image this week features a stylish 1920s car, so I thought I would give you both a stylish 1920s car and two stylish ladies from the same era. Both look very proud of their car and their lives, and so they should do. No doubt previous generations had style, but it … Continue reading Style

A Face For Three Centuries

In a small way, restoring old photographs is a bit like bringing people back to life. Rescuing faces, figures, stances, and backgrounds from the slow decay into faded, sepia obscurity is quietly satisfying. Just look at that face: formed in the nineteenth century, photographed in the twentieth, and restored in the twenty-first century.

Electric Beauty

Built in 1909, Brighouse's Electricity Works, which is situated on the main Bradford to Huddersfield Road immediately next to the canal, is a functional structure built with a Yorkshire faith in substance over style. The exception is the small stone date plaque, which matches in Art Nouveau elegance anything that can be found on the … Continue reading Electric Beauty

Glory, Side-On

I walked past Bethesda Church in Elland the other day. I must have passed it by a thousand times before without pausing to look and appreciate its fine features. Designed by William Hill of Leeds - the architect of some beautiful town halls including those in Bolton, Yeadon and Portsmouth - and built in 1879-80, … Continue reading Glory, Side-On

Picturesque Scenes

Driving through the Yorkshire Dales last weekend, you didn't have to seek out picturesque scenes, they formed disorderly queues in order to present themselves to you. Around almost every corner would be a history-steeped bridge over a stone-stepped brook, flanked by pubs that would tempt a Son of Temperance. This example was in the village … Continue reading Picturesque Scenes

Shadow Boxing

Last weekend I drove south through the Yorkshire Dales National Park on a day when the sun and the clouds promoted shadow boxing matches between the moors and hills. Unable to stop and take the photograph I sensed was waiting to be taken, I had to wait until I got home and play around with … Continue reading Shadow Boxing

Huddersfield Piazza

I'm not sure how Huddersfield got a Piazza - it might have been near the end of a too-long Planning Committee meeting, it might have been a joke, and it was probably wishful thinking. But why shouldn't the town have a piazza if it wants one? Let it be filled with shops, and people, and … Continue reading Huddersfield Piazza

Mrs Foggin’s Bust

This is a scan of one of the Victorian prints I bought - for pence rather than pounds - when I was in Newcastle recently. On the back is a label headed "The Great Britain Art Co" with a name, Mrs R J Foggin, and a set of instructions for reprinting: "As copy, not so … Continue reading Mrs Foggin’s Bust

Visual Toothache

I took the photograph that was the start of this image the other day as I wandered around Halifax waiting for my dental appointment. Since then, I have poked and prodded it, scraped and flossed it, and finished up with something which is quite pleasant to look at. Not sure you can say the same … Continue reading Visual Toothache