Coal Staith, Hartley Bank

Original photo

From my 1964-65 negatives, this is one of the two coal staithes (loading bays) at Hartley Bank Colliery.

The original (left) was in such a poor state that I’ve coloured it to make it more readable.

The same scene today is more green and rural, so I’ve superimposed my original 50 mm 127 frame on a wide angle iPhone shot of the same view today, taken from the bridge at the bottom of the Balk.

Apologies to ‘Ghosts of Horbury’ on our Horbury and Sitlington History Group Facebook page. I now realise how difficult it is to match up the perspective!

A Leggy Pelargonium

pelargonium

We’ve had this pelargonium for more than a year, so it’s not surprising that its now looking leggy undernourished, but the leaf-scarred stems make it more interesting to draw.

Drawn in Procreate with the ‘Technical Pen’, a plain no-nonsense virtual pen.

Alliums

alium

75℉ 27℃, front garden: The tall alliums are attracting small to medium-sized bumblebees.

Fairburn Ings, 1964

Fairburn Ings

From my 1964-65 negatives, this was probably my first visit the what was then a West Riding County Council nature reserve at Fairburn Ings (now an RSPB reserve).

swans at Fairburn

I’ve colourised the shot of the information board but this black and white of the mute swans probably gives a better impression of the way the lagoon was surrounded by colliery spoil in its early days.

Holme Moss to Temple Newsam

cheshire sign

One evening in 1964 or 65, we drove out to Holme Moss on the watershed of the Pennines, on the border of what was then the West Riding of Yorkshire with Cheshire.

127 photos

Apart from some disappointing contact prints, I’ve never been able to look at these badly developed photographs so I’m surprised to see that the sign ‘UNFENCED ROAD BEWARE ANIMALS’ is just about readable.

That’s my sister on the West Riding sign.

Temple Newsam

Temple Newsam

On another evening outing my dad drove us all to Temple Newsam, Leeds. This time that isn’t me on the plinth.

Temple Newsam

John Carr’s Birthplace

John Carr

Spotted at the Øl hygge café bar, High Street, Horbury, this morning: to celebrate his 300th birthday last month, John Carr makes a brief visit to his birthplace, the cottage at the left-hand end of this Grade II-listed former farm house, which dates from 1637.

John Carr display

After his extended stint as architect in residence at the Redbox Gallery, Queen Street, the John Carr roadshow was moving on to its next venue . . . at the other end of Horbury, in the Carnegie Free Library.

Double Trouble

double exposure of my brother

It’s my brother’s turn to be in the spotlight in today’s dip into my 1964/65 negatives. In this one I’ve cloned him in a double exposure – evidently with a brother like Bill, one of him wasn’t enough. But it hasn’t worked out and the two sides of his persona are threatening each other with knives.

double exposure

That’s my thumb print, yet another example of my inept film developing skills. My Ilford Sprite 127 plastic camera had no tripod bush so I rested it on a wooden stepladder.

boy on trolley

More special effects as Bill hurtles down our driveway.

trolley

We called our homemade go-carts trolleys. I remember that this one included the comfort of an old spongy rubber doormat on the running board. The baton by the back wheel might be a makeshift break.

The Broken Leg

Richard with broken leg

With a bit of help from the Adobe Illustrator this is me in January 1965 with my leg in a cast after breaking my leg hurrying home on an icy Boxing Day evening to watch Fred Hoyle’s Universe.

My mum had added a long zip to my trousers to fit over the cast. I rather liked the new ash-wood walking stick which Pinderfields Hospital had loaned me so I was not pleased when some of my classmates used it for an improvised game of golf, scratching the handle 😮

Richard in black and white

I’d like to say that the grainy quality of the photograph was deliberate but it was probably caused by thermal shock to the film in my early attempts at developing it in a Paterson’s developing tank.

Link

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nurse

The Broken Leg, my comic strip diary from that time

Kirkham Priory, 1964

Kirkham Priory

There were chapels at the north-east end of Kirkham Priory, separated by an ambulatory (an aisle) from the main altar on the far right on my photograph. This black and white 127 photograph, coloured in Photoshop, is from my one and only visit there in 1964.