Those of us who spend our lives looking at pictures of old Halifax have a range of potential dating pointers: Is Square Church still a church, or just a spire? Is the Queensbury railway line still in place? are there trees on Beacon Hill? I think this photograph of mine was taken in the 1960s, … Continue reading View From St Thomas’s
Category: Scanned Negatives
Green Change
Whenever I revisit one of my old photographs, I can never resist the temptation to seek out a modern view of the same scene to see what has changed. With this view of the junction between Northowram Green and Land's Head Lane, I assumed it would be much the same, but I was surprised by … Continue reading Green Change
This Is Bradford
This is Vine Street in the Great Horton district of Bradford. My father grew up a few streets away; my mother grew up a few more streets away in the other direction. There are terraced houses, a cobbled street and a mill at the bottom. This was Bradford. The houses are still there, but the … Continue reading This Is Bradford
The Sprinting Photographer
This is another of my Sheffield photos from when I was living in the city forty years ago. I was obviously much younger then because I was able to sprint out into the middle of a dual carriageway to get the shot - and live to tell the tale many decades later.
1980s
Another photograph from my Sheffield series, taken back in the 1980s. The cars scream the 1980s. The background - slowly fading into a post-industrial emptiness - weeps the 1980s.
Foggy Night In Sheffield
It was over forty years ago, but I can still remember taking this photograph. This was long before everyone had a camera in their pocket disguised as a telephone, so I would have been out and about with a hefty SLR, trying to imagine how the picture might eventually turn out. It turned out quite … Continue reading Foggy Night In Sheffield
Calder Scars
I must have taken this photograph looking across the Calder Valley from Hullenedge Road in Elland about fifty years ago. I was probably trying to capture the freshness of the scar resulting from the construction of the then, new Elland by-pass. Over the last half century, that scar has largely healed, although recent work has … Continue reading Calder Scars
The Slow Train
At one time, railway lines criss-crossed West Yorkshire like the warp and weft of the very fabrics the area was famous for. Holmfield Junction Station stood at the junction of the line from Halifax to Bradford via Queensbury and the splendidly named Halifax High Level Railway. None of these lines survive, and when I took … Continue reading The Slow Train
Dark Satanic Mill
As time goes by and memories fade, there is a tendency to romanticise life in the mills of West Yorkshire (and I'm probably as guilty as the next old fool when it comes to this). When they were turning out cloth - or yarn or carpets - by the mile and black smoke was belching … Continue reading Dark Satanic Mill
