O Lovely Peace

A sacred concert was given in the Wesleyan Church on Wednesday of last week be the St. Austell Male Quartette (Messrs. Blight, George, Varcoe, and Phillips). Their numerous quartettes were listened to with great attention. Messrs. George and Varcoe sang as a duet, "The Last Milestone"; Messrs. Blight and Phillips sang “O lovely peace." Mrs Harold White acted as accompanist, and sang "The Gift." Miss Jenkin recited “A day too late" and "The Martyrs" in a very able manner. Mr. C. H. White was the chairman. (Cornish Guardian 7 November 1913)

An old postcard that came from who knows where. A quartette of singers performing in November 1913. They sang "O Lovely Peace". Oh, if only they had known.

Plain John Wainhouse

John Edward Wainhouse did not do plain. Ask him to build a dyeworks chimney and you would finish up with a monumental tower; ask him to build a row of cottages and you would get spiral staircases and terraced balconies. His tower still stands proud, his terrace has seen better days. This was taken in 1972 when parts of it were still occupied and before the stone-cleaners came along.

Cause And Effect

I am not quite sure where this was taken from, but it could well have been in the King Cross area of Halifax. Whilst the dirt was being blasted off the public buildings of the town in the early 1970s, many terraces still bore witness to their sooty past. This multitude of chimneys, bitumen-black, gave evidence to both cause and effect.

When Not Why

There are two possible questions to go with this particular scan from my collection of old negatives. The first is, should old buildings be cleaned? There is an argument which says that power-washing the dirt, soot and grime off these fine old Victorian stone buildings is the architectural equivalent of a face-lift: momentarily interesting but, in the long term, depressingly invasive. However, I am putting off such a debate for a sunnier day in order to concentrate on the second, slightly more prosaic, question: when was Halifax Town Hall stone cleaned? I have combed through the copious wisdom of Uncle Google without pinning an exact date down. The date may remain a mystery, but I am pretty certain of the time: five to eight in the morning (or, just possibly, in the evening!)

Nineteen And A Quarter Miles

So why would anyone place a milepost on an obscure back road in Rastrick telling passers by that it was only nineteen and a quarter miles to Rochdale? Who would want to know that? You might want to know how many miles it was to Elland, but that piece of information has worn away. Further research shows that this was the end of the Rastrick Branch of the Huddersfield and New Hey Turnpike Trust which was established by Act of Parliament in 1806. And where exactly is New Hey? It's an equally obscure little suburb of Rochdale, exactly nineteen and a quarter miles away.

Subtracting Detail

The grain of photographic film emulsions is a magical thing, it can take a pedestrian scene and transform it to a moody masterpiece. It doesn't achieve such a transformation by adding anything, but by subtracting. Subtracting detail, highlights, contrast; leaving just emotion.

Blackpool In October

Who would go to Blackpool in October, when there was a wind blowing and rain lashing down? Once there, who would possibly want to ride a donkey on the sands? Miriam Fieldhouse would. Photograph taken by Frank Fieldhouse, October 1951,

Man In A Flat Cap

A man in a flat cap, rushing passed the railings, trying to avoid the coming rain. Sheffield in the early 1980s. It was still a black and white world back then, but change was coming, and the man in the flat cap had about as much chance of avoiding it as he did avoiding the rain.

Carpeting The Calder Valley

The final shot from this strip of negatives places Clark Bridge Mills - at the time the headquarters of Homfray Carpets - at the centre of the action. Henry James Homfray may have been one of the lesser-known carpet barons of Halifax, but with mills in Sowerby Bridge, Luddendenfoot, Birstall and Halifax, he made a notable contribution to carpeting the entire Calder Valley. In 1952, Homfray Carpets were the first firm in the UK to produce tufted carpets (the Crossleys Brothers would probably have shuddered at the very thought of a tufted carpet), but this movement in the direction of the cheaper end of the floor covering market didn't save the firm. Faced with increasing debts, the firm was sold  to a wholly owned subsidiary, Riding Hall Carpets in 1966. Production of carpets at the mill came to an end in the 1970s, and it was eventually demolished in July 1980.

Mill, Church, Gable And Hillside

We do gable ends well in Yorkshire. We're proud of them. Stick a little window in them, give them a bob or two's worth of lace curtains. Let them stand out like giant headstones. These were fifty years ago somewhere down Southowram Bank: within twisting distance of where yesterday's photograph was taken from. This photo says it all: mill, church, gable and hillside ... Halifax.

A Mug Of Tea Photo

The next shot on this strip of negatives is a mug of tea photo. Not a passing fancy you can digest with a single glance whilst you sip a mouthful of Lapsang souchong, not even a thoughtful perusal whilst you drink a cup of PG Tips. For this photo you need a mug full of Yorkshire Tea and a toasted teacake. You can loose yourself in it, go exploring in it, wander down memory lane and up Woolshops. You can see what's gone and view what's coming. To help you digest it better, I have cut it into four slices.

There you go, mash that mug of tea and settle yourself down. Can you spot the car park where Marks and Spencer is now? Can you follow the line of the railway where it doesn't go any more? Can you see the pub you had your first pint in, and the street you walked to work down? Can you see your Auntie Mabel and your Cousin George? Before you settle down too comfortably, is that a teacake I can smell burning in the toaster?