Demolition : Dean Street and Granville Street, Elland (1970s) It is a sight you don't see much any more - demolition on a large scale. These days it's more discreet: hidden behind scaffolding and plastic sheets. This was Elland back in the early 1970s, when the demolition teams left open wounds: cobbled streets without a … Continue reading Open Wounds And Cobbled Streets
Category: Scanned Negatives
The Cocoa Sheds Of Elland
OLD SHED, CHARLES STREET, ELLAND c1970 In the days of black and white,In total love I fell, andWe'd walk the streets all day and night,By the cocoa sheds of Elland. (With sincere apologies to John Betjeman)
The Day Of The Parade
We all have different ways of occupying ourselves during the Great Lockdown; things we can do that will take our minds off the challenges and dangers that lurk outside the confines of our own houses. As will be obvious to anyone who visits these pages on a regular basis, my own particular approach is to … Continue reading The Day Of The Parade
Bottled Beer And Serial Bankruptcies
The last photo from this strip of six negatives focuses on something which was just visible in the previous image: the monumental end wall of the Old Lane Inn. There must be collective memories out there about this Halifax pub, but the written record is limited to the sad listing of the bankruptcies and liquidations … Continue reading Bottled Beer And Serial Bankruptcies
Between Smoke And Soot
Old Lane And Dean Clough, Halifax (c1970) There was a greyness about Halifax back in those days: fifty or more shades between smoke and soot. But it was honest, hard-worked muck - nowt to be ashamed of.
Up The Junction
Superimposed on our familiar landscapes are echoes of the past; Victorian ley lines that were the superhighways of their time. I took this photo of Holmfield Station in Halifax 50 years ago: it was forgotten then, it's lost now. Holmfield railway station was opened by the Great Northern Railway in 1878. For a short while … Continue reading Up The Junction
Bobbin Ligging
Smith Bulmer's Mill in Holmfield, Halifax, pictured in the late 1960s or early 1970s. I had a holiday job there once, as - what used to be known as - a "bobbin ligger": sorting out a mountain of old bobbins into pointless piles.
Counting The Chimneys
Even more proof that life existed in Halifax before Burdock Way. This photo has a slightly wider field of view than yesterdays. If you are stuck inside during Lockdown with nothing to do, you can always count the chimneys!
Life Before Burdock
Photographic proof - if ever proof was needed - that there was life in Halifax before the Burdock Way. I must have taken this photograph sometime around 1970: after much of the demolition of New Bank, but before the overpass was started.
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