Sticking To A Good Idea

I have a book, somewhere on my bookshelf, which charts the history of great ideas and how they came about. It starts off by imagining how our ancestors might have thought up the idea of the wheel ,and goes on to describe the moment of sublime insight that gave us such inventions as the vacuum cleaner, penicillin, and the one-sheet toilet roll dispenser. I have a new chapter to add to this volume; an idea of grace and beauty which emerged over a meal out at the pub last night.

We were having dinner with two good friends and they brought their granddaughter along with them. The delightful Phoebe was presented with a sticker book to keep her occupied whilst the grown-ups put the problems of the world to right, and decided on the location of their next shopping outing. Paul and I, having abandoned any hope of putting the world to right, and lacking sufficient interest in shopping expeditions, started to wonder why we couldn't be supplied with sticker books to keep us occupied.

We decided that our interest in creatures of the deep (the subject of Phoebe's book) was limited to the question of how many of them we could eat with chips, so a different subject matter came to mind. And that is how the concept of the Scottish Malt Whisky Sticker Book came about. A series of maps of the Highlands and Islands along with page after page of small stickers illustrated with a whisky bottle. The stickers are, of course, of the "scratch 'n sniff" variety, so connoisseurs can firstly identify, then locate, then stick each of the glorious stickers.

Boredom can be a thing of the past. Hour upon hour of harmless entertainment is at hand. Buy the whisky lover in your life a Scottish Malt Whisky Sticker Book today.

Superglued To The Hillside

TERRACED HOUSES, SOUTHOWRAM BANK, HALIFAX. SCANNED NEGATIVE, 1974

Houses that are superglued to the hillside: two storeys at the front, three at the back. From the top window you could see all the way to Wainhouse Tower - if it wasn't for the mills in between.

Howard and Louise Bantes

This is a nineteenth century photograph (but only just) from the studio of Borman and Johnson of Main Street, Danbury in Connecticut. Before Norman and Johnson took over, the studio belonged to a certain Mr Blackman. On the reverse, the names of the two children are listed as A Howard Bantes, age 12; and Louise Rosina Bantes, age 5. The date "Xmas 1899" is also inscribed.

Pictures From Nowhere : A Thing Of Beauty

Aunt Lily And Granma Nunn

An old faded print of so little significance that it has been long abandoned. A faded caption on the reverse commemorating faded relationships. A thing of beauty.

Pictures From Nowhere : A Busy Photo

There is nothing better than a busy photograph. Two tin baths, half a skirt, a branch cutting through a frown: this 1926 photo contains enough for a lengthy essay.

Monochrome Valley : Chip Shop In Halifax

CHIP SHOP IN HALIFAX (1970)

There was a time when every street corner had its own chip shop: a healthier age, when folk walked for their take-aways.

Devil's Cauldron Or Cradle Of The Arts?

SCANNED NEGATIVES : HALIFAX FROM THE SHIBDEN VALLEY (c1968)

This is one of my photos from 50 years ago and shows Halifax from  the Shibden Valley. The town seems to be spilling from the lip of some giant industrial cauldron, or nestling in a cradle of the arts.

This particular photograph comes from a time when my brother, Roger, and I were planning a slide presentation (a kind of 1960s equivalent of a vlog), which we had given the working title, "Halifax : Devil's Cauldron or Cradle of the Arts?". The presentation never got finished, but the title has stuck with me down the years.

Postcards From Home : Bull Green, Halifax

POSTCARDS FROM HOME : BULL GREEN, HALIFAX (1950s)

Bull Green, Halifax in the 1950s. Little has changed as far as the built environment is concerned, but it is a different world revolving around the roundabout these days.

I suspect that this postcard dates from the 1950s, but as it was never postally used I have no proof of that. The Bull Green we see in the photograph is certainly the Bull Green that emerged from the redevelopment of the area in the early 1930s, and one suspects that the photograph was taken from the newly built Bull Green House. A similar photograph today wouldn't be all that different: most of the buildings you can see have survived (other than the rather ornate bus shelter). The road layout is different as are the crossings, and you would have to be up very early in the morning to see so few cars on the road.

Some say that Bull Green got its name from a bull baiting arena; others say it was the site of an old cattle market - as was the adjacent Cow Green. Why there were two distinct markets, I do not know:  some strange Methodist propriety perhaps?

Cobbles And Clotheslines

SCANNED NEGATIVES : COBBLES AND CLOTHESLINES

Another of my photographs from fifty years ago. This was one of the many streets that climbed the hill to Claremount, Halifax. Streets of cobbles and clotheslines.

Many of the tightly packed streets that climbed up New Bank were swept away when Burdock Way carved its way through Halifax. The houses had no gardens - a back yard was the most you could hope for. When it came to drying the washing, lines were spread across the streets. Few vehicles attempted such gradients - those that did, had to dodge the clotheslines.

Oaks And Stone

PICTURES FROM NOWHERE : OAKS AND STONE, RUPERRA, 7th APRIL 1932

An old photograph of a young man walking near Ruperra Castle in Wales in 1932. The photo is entitled "Oaks and Stone", but that poetic title is the extent of my knowledge.

This is a print from a tiny album of photographs taken in 1932 at Ruperra Castle in Wales. Whoever took the photograph has given it the rather poetic title "Oaks and Stone", and the subject has adopted somewhat aesthetic pose. During the early 1930s, the castle was the property of Evan Morgan, 4th Baron and 2nd Viscount Tredegar. Morgan was a noted poet and eccentric and a friend of people such as the poet, Lord Alfred Douglas; the painter, Augustus John; the socialite Nancy Cunard; and the author, H G Wells. Our figure is clearly none of those, but I would happily give an oak dresser or a stone jar to know who it was.

Brass And Bibles

POSTCARDS FROM HOME : COMMERCIAL STREET, HALIFAX (1908)

When it came to buildings, the folk of West Yorkshire favoured banks and chapels; temples to the soul and to commerce; brass and bibles.

This fine building was erected in 1898 for the Halifax and Huddersfield Union Banking Company. To make way for it, part of Somerset House was demolished, but architectural vandalism can perhaps be excused if the vandals in question have decent taste. Today it hangs on as the premises of Lloyds Bank, but in an era of ATM's and on-line banking who knows how long it will be before it becomes an empty and soulless shell.

The card was used in February 1908 for Bert to send his "kind regards" to Miss Fildes of Pendleton, Lancashire. The likely recipient of his regards was Jessie Fildes a twenty-five year old hand weaver. There is a record of a Jessie Fildes marrying a Albert Torkington in 1918, but whether this is the same Jessie and Bert, we may never know. It it nice to think, however, that those kind regards bore fruit.