Tag: Halifax

Bottoms Mill, Ogden

As far as I can make out, Bottoms Mill in Ogden, near Halifax, no longer exists. Why you would want to buy a picture postcard of it, I am not too sure; but during the great postcard boom of the early twentieth century, postcards would be made of anything that stood still for long enough … Continue reading Bottoms Mill, Ogden

Postcards From Home : Siddal’s Comet

My relationship with Siddal is somewhat akin to the relationship between the earth and Halley's Comet. Very occasionally we are in close proximity: as a teenager I sought out a pub there that was reputed to have a liberal interpretation of the licensing laws, and many years later my brother lived there for a few … Continue reading Postcards From Home : Siddal’s Comet

Back Home

Here we are, back again. And it wasn't Mablethorpe, but somewhere a little more sunny. Exotic beaches and tropical cocktails are all very well, but they can't hold a candle to the fifty shades of grey that you can find on a soot-coated wall of a Yorkshire mill. The Caribbean Sea may be azure blue … Continue reading Back Home

What Is Picturesque About Halifax?

Here's a challenge for you! If you had to put together a postcard featuring five views of Halifax and entitled "Picturesque Halifax", which views would you choose? Probably not the ones featured on this vintage postcard from 100 years ago.

Postcards From Home : Southgate Setts

Picture postcards from the first decade of the twentieth century are relatively common: that was when postcards were the text messages of their day, and picture postcard collecting was the hobby of choice. By the 1920s new picture postcards were becoming harder to find.  ​This wonderful colour photograph of Southgate in Halifax dates from that … Continue reading Postcards From Home : Southgate Setts

Postcards From Home : Halifax’s Hospital On The Hill

No doubt the transport engineers who have spent a lot of time and money widening the road outside what is now Calderdale Royal Hospital would be jealous of the wide open spaces on this real photographic postcard from the early twentieth century.  The hospital was opened in 1901 and went under a variety of names … Continue reading Postcards From Home : Halifax’s Hospital On The Hill

Fire In Halifax #2

Fifty years ago I took a series of photographs of a fire in Halifax. It was just a relatively small fire in one of the mills; none of the photographs actually show the fire itself. It was the fire engines, the hose pipes and, in particular, the watching crowds that fascinated me then, and still … Continue reading Fire In Halifax #2

Overlooking Halifax

This is a new scan of a negative I must have taken fifty or more years ago. It was taken from the churchyard of St Thomas' Church, Claremount, and shows the bottom part of Halifax back in the days when the buildings were still soot-black and the chimneys that made them so were still smoking. … Continue reading Overlooking Halifax

1738 : Lee Bank Mill, Halifax

A photograph of Lee Bank Mill in Halifax which I took in the early 1970s. It was an age of closed and crumbling mill buildings - an industrial heartland being reclaimed by vegetation.