Picture Post Has Moved

I am trying to fit my blogging into my new post-retirement lifestyle and therefore I have decided to merge my two regular blogs - News From Nowhere and Picture Post. In future my pictures - old and new - will be posted on the News From Nowhere Blog. If you would like to keep following my picture posts, please make sure you are a follower of News From Nowhere.

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1008 : Todmorden Turrets

High on a hill overlooking Todmorden is the third in my trio of buildings designed by John Gibson, Dobroyd Castle. Built as a home for the mill-owning Fielden family. The story is that John Fielden Jnr fell in love with a local worker, Ruth Stansfield, who said she would marry him if he built her a castle. The couple got married in 1857 and Dobroyd Castle was the built a few year later. It would be nice to say that they lived happily ever after, but they didn't. But that, as they say, is another story.

1007 : Todmorden Gothic

Todmorden Unitarian Church is the second of my three featured Todmorden buildings designed by John Gibson. This astonishing church stands on the hillside overlooking the town and is a Grade 1 listed building. Built in 1865, the Church continued to provide services until 1987 when it closed. Happily, it was brought back into use following its acquisition, and restoration, by the Historic Chapels Trust, in 2008.

1006 : Todmorden Pediment

Last Sunday we took a trip up the valley to Todmorden. This amazing building is Todmorden Town Hall which was built in 1874/5 to a design by the London architect, John Gibson. Gibson was also responsible for designing the Todmorden Unitarian Church and Dobroyd Castle - photographs of both of these I will be featuring over the next couple of days. The Town Hall is currently undergoing restoration work, hence the scaffolding around the lower parts of the building.

1005 : Heads, You Win.

A picture taken last Friday whilst visiting the breath-taking exhibition of work by the Spanish artist Jaume Plensa which is being held at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. 

1004 : Paddock Curves And Gritty Lanolin

Paddock Viaduct, Near Huddersfield

Paddock Viaduct takes the Huddersfield to Sheffield railway line out of the town centre and enables it to fly over the steep valley of the River Colne. Trapped beneath its huge and gracefully curved arches are rows of stone-built terraced houses. There is something so Yorkshire about the scene : not Dales-decked Herriot Country, but gritty, lanolin-soaked West Yorkshire. The magnificent viaduct is the work of Sir John Hawkshaw who was also responsible for the Lockwood viaduct about a mile further south.

INTERREGNUM : The normal order of things is going to be a little disturbed over the next six weeks or so. Tomorrow, the Good Lady Wife (GLW) retires from work and there then follows a round of parties, visits and celebrations.. In June we are away on holiday for three weeks. Until we go on holiday I will try and post something each day - sometimes to News From Nowhere and sometimes to Alan Burnett's Picture Post. I will try to include links between blogs so you will be able to keep up with where I am. The weekly calls for Sepia Saturday posts will not be interrupted.

1003 : No Fire Without Smoke

Another picture of Oakwell Hall, this time the side view. What struck me was the scale of the chimneys : one tends to forget just what an important and dominant part of a house of this age the chimneys were. There is no fire without smoke, and without fire, life would be very cold indeed. Coal, however, was cheap and plentiful : indeed the Hall is built on top of what was a rich coal seam.

1002 : Antique, Rambling And Incommodious

Amy and I took a walk in the grounds of Oakwell Hall the other day. Located a few miles away from where we live, Oakwell is a late sixteenth century "yeoman and gentry house" which is now a museum and the heart of a country park. In the early nineteenth century, Charlotte Bronte was a regular visitor to Oakwell and she used it as the model for "Fieldhead", the home of the heroine Shirley Keeldar in her novel Shirley. In the book, she describes it as follows : "It was neither a grand nor a comfortable house, within as without it was antique, rambling and incommodious". Far be it from me to argue with Charly, but I suspect I could be quite comfortable there.

1001 : Gorse, Moors And Nont Sarahs

This photograph of Scammonden Moor and Reservoir was taken this morning. The building you can see in the distance on the extreme left is the famous Nont Sarahs Hotel. The tale goes that an earlier proprietor bought the pub with money he borrowed from his Aunt Sarah and it was named - albeit it in Yorkshire dialect - after her.

1,000th Post : Back To The Beginning

I have just realised that this is the 1,000th post on Alan Burnett's Picture Post so in celebration I return to the very first post which was dated Monday 1st January 2007 and titled "Storm Clouds Over Dorchester Road". If I look out of my window today, that same tree is still there, but in full leaf and bathed by the Springtime sun.