Category: Picture Post

Up And Down Bold Street With Arthur Medrington

Arthur Stanhope Medrington opened an artist studio at 128 Bold Street in Liverpool in the late 1870s. Like so many jobbing artists of the time, his work was largely confined to providing relatively cheap portraits of Victorian middle class families - the type of work and the type of market that the new invention of … Continue reading Up And Down Bold Street With Arthur Medrington

Art Finished In Penmaenmawr

This delightful print, which I suspect dates back to the 1870s, came into my hands for a few pence via an eBay job lot of old photographs. It is the work of Blas Rangel, an early studio photographer who was born in Singapore in 1840 and was active in several towns in Britain in the … Continue reading Art Finished In Penmaenmawr

Bookmarks For The Summer Of ’18

Photographs are the bookmarks of life: they are there to remind us of passages that are important for one reason or another. I have a feeling that there will be all sorts of reasons why I remember the summer of 2018, but, for the moment, it will be the weather. Even if it now rains … Continue reading Bookmarks For The Summer Of ’18

Mechanical History

During the 19th Century there was a great tradition of building Mechanic's Institutes in the towns and villages of the industrial north of England. Not only were these centres for adult education, cultural enrichment, and political debate; they were also fine buildings in their own right. A small number still pursue their original function, but … Continue reading Mechanical History

Sea, Sky And Seagulls

The British seaside: sea, sands, sky, fish and chips, ice cream, and seagulls.

So Much For Folklore

Parts of Saint Mary's Church in Painswick, Gloucestershire, date back to the fourteenth century. The churchyard contains a fine collection of yew trees. Local folklore suggests that there will never be more than 99 trees in the churchyard, and if a 100th appears, the devil will puck it out. Current estimates suggest that there are … Continue reading So Much For Folklore

Southwold Sky

Sometimes the seaside gets squashed between the sea and the sky like the custard cream in a sandwich biscuit.

Archives : Orgreave Before The Battle

Orgreave Coking Plant was like a working industrial sculpture that greeted visitors to the city as they drove along the Parkway from the M1. A couple of years after I took this photograph it became famous as the site of the famous Battle of Orgreave during the Miner's strike. Within ten years it had been … Continue reading Archives : Orgreave Before The Battle