Wiltshire: A pilgrimage

At first glance you wouldn't realise the significance of this rather lovely oriel window... I have wanted to see it for many years though, in fact ever since I saw an exhibition on the history of photography at the Media Museum in Bradford. For this window was the subject of the earliest surviving photographic negative, made in 1835 by William Henry Fox Talbot. It is a window in Lacock Abbey (of which more tomorrow). Lacock was Fox Talbot's home. A scientist, polymath and inventor, he had long wanted to find a way to fix images on paper and through research and experimentation, he devised the calotype negative, using silver salted paper.  

Fox Talbot was certainly a pioneer in photographic history although there were other processes, notably the Daguerreotype developed at the same time in France, that also had a profound impact. Fox Talbot's work was the first to enable many prints to be made of the same image. Those Victorians... what a debt we owe them all.

It seemed only fitting that I should take a photograph of the window, in homage - and it is very pretty.

Now and then

Gibson Mill has a fascinating history. It was built in 1805 as a water-powered cotton mill but, as the Industrial Revolution gathered pace, the initial attractions of the site (alongside a fast flowing river to power the waterwheel) became more of a hindrance. The valley is narrow and when packhorse transport was overtaken by rail and road, it became increasingly difficult to get supplies and goods to and from the mill.

It finally closed as a mill in 1902 but was almost immediately reopened as a restaurant. During the previous decade the wooded valley, full of waterfalls and picnic spots, had became a tourist attraction and various small pavilions had opened, serving refreshments to cater to the weekend visitors from the nearby industrial towns. The mill became an 'entertainment emporium', with first and second class (!) restaurants, a dance floor and later a roller skating rink. At its height in the 1920s, the area was attracting 500,000 visitors a year. People were transported from Hebden Bridge railway station in open carriages called wagonettes that could transport 25 people at once, pulled by teams of four horses. The last owner left the mill and the estate to the National Trust, on his death in 1956.

You can see from the photos that superficially the Mill is still very similar to what it looked like in the early 1900s. It is, however, now one of the NT's flagship sustainable enterprises. Apart from a telephone link, it is completely 'off-grid', generating electricity from a water turbine and photo-voltaic panels, heating from a bio-mass boiler and having composting toilets.

(Old photos are taken from the display panels around the mill. Hope nobody objects!)

The Butterfields of Cliffe Castle

The Victorian owner of Cliffe Castle, Henry Isaac Butterfield (see above), was a wealthy industrialist whose family originated in this area. They had woollen mills locally and extended their business interests to America. In 1854, Henry married Mary Roosevelt Burke, a relative of Theodore Roosevelt. (He was 35 and she was just 16.) They actually lived mostly in France but that didn't stop Henry from expanding his mansion here and later his son Frederick used it as his principal home. They gave lavish and very formal dinner parties, as was fashionable at the time. The house was stripped of personal assets when it was sold to Keighley Corporation in 1949 and ceased to be used as a home. However, descendants of the family have recently bequeathed some of the furniture and fixtures back and they have been reinstated, among them the amazing green malachite fireplace shown below. Some of the downstairs rooms are arranged much as they would have been when the family used them. They are very ornate and packed full of precious items, as most well-to-do Victorian homes were. The photo above, taken in 1895, is almost life sized, sited through a door, and it all very much gives the impression that this is a home and the family are gathered in the conservatory (the 'Winter Garden') for a photograph!

Cliffe Castle's main entrance

A chip off the old block

Can you tell which is me and which is my granddaughter? I do think there is a certain family resemblance....

Diamond girls

The Queen and I have little in common except a name - Elizabeth - and a diamond celebration this year. A lot of little girls born in 1952 were called Elizabeth, I think.  (It's my second name.)  I was almost a year old on Coronation Day (2 June 1953) and, judging by the photo, I had more of a capacity then to get into flag-waving mood than I do now!  I am trying... wearing blue jeans, a white T-shirt and a red jacket today, and I spent yesterday afternoon watching the Jubilee Pageant on the Thames in London, on TV.  Such a pity about the Great British weather, for everyone involved.  I would have felt a lot happier had the Queen sat down on her 'throne' on the barge, allowed someone to tuck her up in a blanket and wrapped her hands round a mug of hot tea, while she watched it all.  As it was, she stood and looked chilled the whole time, remarkable for a lady of 86 but, I felt, rather above and beyond the call of duty.  But then, she's made of sterner stuff than I... It was so cold and wet here in Yorkshire that I'm ashamed to say I had the gas fire on!

World Heritage Weekend

This is just a trailer... I am busy enjoying this weekend's celebration of Saltaire's UNESCO World Heritage Site status - and putting together some blog posts so you too can share the festivities.

I loved this old photo of a horse-drawn canal boat on the Leeds-Liverpool canal, which is the poster for this year's special Weekend.  The Canal, of course, runs through Saltaire and was one of the reasons Sir Titus Salt chose this site for his new mill and village.

As the programme says: 'There are 936 World Heritage Sites across the world.  Some are natural such as the Jurassic coast in Devon, others man-made such as the Sphinx in Egypt.  Saltaire is in very good company!'   In many ways, this blog is the product of the World Heritage movement.  In 2009 I visited the World Heritage Site of Masada on the shore of Israel's Dead Sea and I was awe-struck by the history and beauty of the place.  It was only when I returned home that the realisation fully struck me that I live in a World Heritage Site - and I was, at that time, just taking it all for granted.  So I resolved to find out more about Saltaire and its history - and that led to me starting this blog, to record what I was noticing and learning and as a way of sharing that. Worth celebrating?  I think so....

Sepia Saturday tribute

For several years I have been delighting in the writings of Alan Burnett, another Yorkshire blogger, whose primary blog is 'News from Nowhere'.  I know I'm not the only one who thoroughly enjoys the eclectic, thought-provoking and amusing fare on offer there.  He also hosts 'Sepia Saturday' together with Kat Mortenson ('Poetikat's Invisible Keepsakes') - which provides an opportunity for bloggers to share their history through photographs.  I've much enjoyed reading the offerings but have never joined in.  Actually I don't have that many old photos and need to wait for retirement (ha!) to find time to scan those I do have.  However, as this weekend is the 100th Sepia Saturday and therefore something of a milestone worth celebrating, I have dug deep ....

Since grandparenting is ever on my mind these days, I am sharing this photo.  Dated February 1953, it was taken at the wedding of my maternal grandfather. (His smart three-piece suit and her real fur coat perhaps demonstrate that this was a very special occasion.)  Grandad's first wife, my mother's mother, sadly died in her early 50s, before I was born.  Some time later he married again, to his first wife's sister, my great aunt Alice.  The child in the photo is.... me!  (At just eight months old I was probably as chubby as I've ever been!)  So Grandad and Aunt Alice were my much-loved grandparents.  I have to say that Aunt Alice loved me as much, I am sure, as my 'real' grandmother would have done.  I remember happy times spent with them, pottering around their little terraced house or playing outside in their back garden.  Grandad had been a miner and suffered terribly from asthma and emphysema, so he couldn't run around much but nevertheless they found ways of amusing me as a child.  Aunt Alice had a pretty musical box, like a Swiss chalet, that played 'La Vie en Rose' when the roof was lifted - such a delight to be allowed to play with it.  I have so many good memories (of both sets of grandparents in fact) and count myself very blessed to have had the security of their love and attention.  Grandparent-grandchild is a special relationship.  I only hope I can be the same source of blessing to my new granddaughter, as I'm sure she will be to me.

Cottingley fairies

Cottingley, a village a mile or two west of Saltaire, was the setting for the infamous "Cottingley fairies" hoax.  In 1917, two young Cottingley girls, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, took photographs purporting to be of fairies.  These photographs were eventually published and 'authenticated' by - amongst others - the author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  The girls did not admit that they were faked pictures, of cardboard cutouts stuck on hatpins, until 1981.  It's a fascinating story (read more here) not least because it shows how readily people will believe what they want to believe.  The photographs, cameras and related memorabilia are now in the National Media Museum in Bradford.

The episode is commemorated in a sign at the entrance to Cottingley village - and that, in a way, is another story, as I have tried unsuccessfully to photograph the sign many times. From the front it does not show up against the trees behind it.  From the back (as here) it is cluttered against what is normally a busy road junction.  A snowy day a few weeks ago, with unusually quiet roads - plus a bit of tidying up in Photoshop - mean that this is more successful than my earlier attempts.  (All the snow has melted now.)

Now and then......

I like comparing 'then' and 'now' photographs, and here is a pair showing the old Post Office in Dent, on the interestingly named road The Laning. As the first photo shows, it is no longer a Post Office but a private house. I don't know how old the second photo is - possibly taken just before the First World War? The lady still appears to be wearing a high-necked Edwardian dress. The road is rough and stony and clearly a pony and trap was the local mode of transport of the day.

Hirst Farm

As I said in yesterday's post, there was at one time a lock keeper's cottage and a farm at Hirst Lock, just outside Saltaire. The buildings have disappeared but I have this old photo (courtesy of Dorothy Burrows) which shows the farm as it used to be. Apparently in the early part of the 20th century Hirst Farm was a popular weekend destination for families, offering horse rides, home-made ice cream and a café.

The River Aire and the Leeds-Liverpool Canal at this spot run alongside each other and there has been a mill here since the 1700s, using the river to turn its water wheel to power the machinery. The mill was originally a corn mill but later made paper. It was rebuilt in the 19th century and has now been converted into flats (see this link for a photo). There are other cottages and houses in the hamlet, built in the 1860s, which still stand, though they too have had various conversions and additions.

Burling & mending

And finally....I've mentioned already in a blogpost the final stage of the worsted manufacturing process - burling and mending. This involved highly skilled workers inspecting the finished cloth by sight and feel, for imperfections and knots. These were then teased out and invisibly mended, to leave a perfect length of cloth. This photograph, hung on the wall of Bradford's Industrial Museum, captures the process - and the concentration required - very well. (Best viewed large)

Bygone days

This old photograph (given to me by Dorothy Burrows) shows Shipley Market Place as it was in the past. I don't have a date for the photo but I imagine it was taken in the early 19th century. I have not lived in the area long enough to remember these buildings. I think that the picture may be taken from what is now the junction of Kirkgate and Otley road. If I'm correct, the building on the right still stands (and is The Sun pub), and some of the buildings on the far right also remain. But the nice old shop in the middle is gone, replaced by the 1960s concrete buildings that house the indoor market and support the clock tower. The current market square (yesterday's blogpost) is up to the left.

One of the best things about doing this blog is how much I'm finding out about my local area that I didn't know. The internet is such a wonderful source of information and I like the way individuals can link their explorations. If you have time, do have a look at this blog. It has a history of Shipley and some more old photos of the area.