.... For whatever reason, I seemed to be drawn to open spaces, to that hinterland between land and sea where vision was king and hearing didn't matter. No doubt the seagulls screech in Cleethorpes, but I never heard them.
Whenever I look back at the photos I took in Cleethorpes in the 1980s, I am reminded of the trauma caused by the gradual loss of my hearing during that decade. .....
Yes, it's a bit dark, but the world is a bit dark at the moment. The question has to be: are the steps leading us into or out of the darkness? I took the photograph on Hope Hall Terrace in Halifax. Enough said.
I'm sure you are right
.... Indeed, the statue itself is nothing compared to All Souls' Church, which it stands at the side of. Last week's spring sunshine showed them both at their very best.
The panel which I featured a couple of days ago, showing Edward Akroyd laying the foundation stone for All Souls' Church, is nothing compared to the rather grand bronze statue of Colonel Akroyd of which it forms a part.....
.... Of the people leaning against a wall with arms folded, of the girl with the throwaway glance, of the dog snoozing in the shade.
19th century photography is photography of the constrained: studio photography of fixed poses, fixed smiles and fixed emotions. The twentieth century brought cheaper cameras and that meant photography of the people by the people. ....
.... On the plinth of the statue are a number of decorative panels showing key events in his lifetime, one of which is the laying of the foundation stone for the church in 1856. The panel is now somewhat worn, weather-beaten, tired and forgotten. Tragically, so is the church it commemorates.
Right next to the Grade 1 listed All Souls' Church in Halifax, there is a statue of the Halifax mill-owner, social reformer, Member of Parliament and church-builder, Edward Akroyd. ...
.... These days, breweries are either of the micro variety, or they are formless features on out-of-town industrial estates. As for the Anchor Brewhouse, you can now buy a small apartment there for as little as £5 million!
This was Courage's Anchor Brewhouse, which was next to Tower Bridge in London, back in the 1970s. When I took the photograph, breweries were still big and located in the heart of our towns and cities. ....
.... If you wanted an aerial photograph like this one of Upperthorpe in Sheffield, you had to construct a brutalist concrete labyrinth (aka Kelvin Flats), climb to the very top, and take your photo. I like to think it was worth the climb.
These days you would just launch a drone, but back in the 1980s we didn't have drones (probably a good things seeing what else drones can do). ....
Shakespeare Street, Halifax : A lane obscure, yet bearing a name of renown, once did serve as a stately portal to a playhouse, a haunt for souls who sought diversion and wisdom. Long hath it languished in adversity, and now is it haunted by sots and knaves.
... Here she is on the first day of Meteorological Spring, 2026.
Britannia has sat on top of the rather ornate former bank at the end of Elland Bridge for 133 years. You might think she'd get bored, but I suspect she enjoys the ever-changing view. I've been regularly taking her photograph for the last 56 of those years. I, too, enjoy the view. ...
A 1959 film called The Bridal Path
I took this photograph a couple of days ago, gave it a title, and scheduled it in for my calendar for the 1st of March. Prescient, or what?
.... Such photographs were taken during filming in order to prepare the publicity photos that would be displayed outside cinemas. You might think it is an odd thing to collect, but there again, I'm an odd person.
My passion for collecting old photographs recognises few bounds, and a few years ago I managed to acquire a small collection of the original negatives of "stills" from British films from the 1940s and 50s. .....
... Just think, sixty years ago I would have had to catch a bus to Halifax and find some cast-iron street hydrant in order to achieve the same ends. Times certainly change.
Getting somewhat annoyed the other day by some toxic pronouncement by a global potentate, I banged my fist down on my desk, and my smartwatch informed me that it looked as if I had taken a fall and that it would send for an emergency ambulance. ....
I took the photograph back in the early 1980s, and I messed around with it early yesterday. It snowed a lot back in the early '80s, and I wandered up and down the back streets of Sheffield taking photographs. It was the shapes that attracted me then, and they still attract me now. Sheffield shapes.
My photograph dates back to the early 1970s and shows one of those streets near the bottom of Lister Lane and Hopwood Lane in Halifax. The precise location doesn't matter - it could be any lane in almost any northern town: with cobbled streets and an obelisk of a mill chimney.
..... These inconsequential shots of random scenes are always the most interesting when viewed from the perspective of "the future": their dearth of subject and richness of background provide a unique view of the past.
These days, this photograph would come under the heading of "Street Photography". When I took it over half a century ago, it came under the heading of "Using The Last Few Shots On A Film Up Before It Was Developed." .....
.... His memory of Sowerby Bridge and the Calder Valley is not what it used to be, so here is a map to remind him: a map drawn and published by him 59 years ago!
My brother contacted me from the other side of the world yesterday to suggest that my "monumental sculpture" photo was not taken in Sowerby Bridge. I have since been able to persuade him that it was. ...
.... I would like to nominate this group of buildings in Sowerby Bridge. Let's pickle them in aspic and sell little plastic models of them in souvenir shops throughout the land.
