My mother's uncle, the splendidly named Fowler Beanland, was a great bowling enthusiast, and this is one of his photographs. It has a caption - Bowling At Devonshire Park, Keighley - but no date. I know that he lived, worked - and bowled - up in Cumbria in the early years of the twentieth century, … Continue reading Needing A Measure
Tag: Old Photographs
So Many Stories
I can never look at one of these group photographs of children from long, long ago without speculating about what became of them in the decades that were to come. What did life have in store for them: what successes and what failures; what challenges and what achievements? There are so many stories, even within … Continue reading So Many Stories
The Young Photographer
By chance, this photograph has reached the top of my "old photos to scan and index pile". A detailed examination reveals that I was a budding photographer well over 70 years ago (yes, that's me in the middle). It also reminds me that today is my brother's birthday (that's him on the left). Happy birthday, … Continue reading The Young Photographer
Random Art
A photo of my Aunty Miriam and Uncle Frank (how can you go swimming in the sea while smoking a cigarette?) and some unknown child. There's a Georges Seurat feel about the scene, and it perfectly illustrates how random old photographs can become works of art in their own right.
Drop The Headless Donkey
I've no idea who the child is or why the donkey seems to have lost its head, but that doesn't matter. It's just one of the prints from my more than plentiful supply of lost and unknown old photographs. It's summer, it's seaside, it's joyous.
Dicka Smith
There's a name scribbled on the reverse of this early 20th century portrait from the Clark Studio of Blyth: "Dicka Smith." Given the time and place, there is a fair chance that Dicka was a miner. The strange object that seems to be supporting him was just one of the studio props that were popular … Continue reading Dicka Smith
The Walkley Hoard
Some years ago I bought a batch of of negatives for a few pounds. The photographs must have been taken during the 1940s and 50s, and many featured views of the Walkley area of Sheffield, so collectively I call them the Walkley Hoard. This is a print from one of the medium format negatives - … Continue reading The Walkley Hoard
Life At The Lifeboat
The three subjects of this 1950s "Found Photo" look like they might have been hired from Central Casting. You half expect Terry Thomas to appear with a tennis racket or Margaret Rutherford to waddle on in a fur stole. I'm not sure where The Lifeboat Inn is (I'm hoping someone might tell me), but it … Continue reading Life At The Lifeboat
That Certainty
A moment snatched from history: a gathering of objects, people and places. At one time they meant something to someone - your Aunty Bess, or Jean's mother before her stroke. Now the objects and people rearrange themselves and mean something about the passage of time - that lamp, those hills, that certainty.
