Sound Or Silence

Back in the 1980s, as I was slowly losing what little natural hearing I had left, I would often go to Cleethorpes. I was drawn, in particular, to the latticework of timber and iron struts beneath the pier. I have dozens of such photographs in my archives. There was something about the almost digital arrangement of black and white - on or off, sound or silence - that suited my mood. Such times are always worth revisiting.

Given Views

 

There are few finer moments than when you’re sitting in a pub, enjoying a pint, and some kind person comes up to you, hands you a book, and says, “We were having a clear-out and came across this old book about Halifax, and immediately thought of you.”

Sheffield Arts

I took this photograph from the front door of the Sheffield house we were living in back in the early 1980s. The tall building is the splendid 20th-century University Arts Tower; the building next to it is the equally splendid 19th-century St George’s Hospital. The snow on the ground was pre-global warming, and the grey photographic grain was pre-digital photography.

Earlier

We have friends coming to visit this week - friends of over five decades - who have come to love our little bit of Yorkshire. We will see the sights, revisit familiar places and note the changes, and we will probably take photographs. Here's one I took earlier.

Nostalgia

 

Ah, those simple summer days of long ago - when Beacon Hill was bare of trees, when charity parades meant kids riding on the back of lorries, when King Street was cobbled, and when mill chimneys still split the sky. (Feel free to insert your own nostalgic meanderings as required.)

The Halifax Tram Strike

One rainy Sunday evening in July 1906, the Number 94 tram from Shelf to Halifax ran out of control while coming down New Bank, overturned, and slid over North Bridge. Two passengers were killed and 12 were injured. It is said that the driver, Theodore Chadwick, did all he could to try to slow the tram down, but he was still dismissed by the Tramways Committee. This led to the 1906 Halifax Tram Strike, which eventually ended in September that year.

Mainlining Memories

This photo is the result of a random dip into my archives. I took it forty years ago during a visit to Athens. I seem to recall that we stopped at the café you can see near the top of the street. That is the wonder of photographs: they mainline memories.

Deep History

For a long time, this was indexed under "unknown location" in my negative files, but a recent Google search allowed me to identify it as the former Hanley Deep Pit in Stoke-on-Trent. That means my photograph must date from the late 1960s or early 1970s, when I was at Keele University and the mine was already closed down and awaiting redevelopment.

Escaping The Mill

 

The telegraph poles provide the date stamp for this photograph of a mill fire escape in Halifax. At some point over the fifty-six years since I took it, I seem to have decided that it was somewhere near Akroyd Place, just outside the town centre. Time, however, has changed the landscape and eroded any meaningful memories I may have had.

Sheffield Days

 

This photograph dates back to my Sheffield days in the 1980s - days of grey and white and miners’ strikes. I’d probably just got off the bus, and as I skated down the ice-covered streets, I stopped to record the scene.

Ivy Rose

 

This is a photo of my father’s cousin, Ivy Burnett, probably taken in Birmingham around 1910. It bears the mark of the Hamnett Studio of Bristol Street, Birmingham, and records show the studio was active at that address between 1908 and 1912. Ivy was born in Birmingham in 1908, so 1910 seems like a good estimate - although the clothes she is wearing look more like late 19th-century styles.