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Alan Burnett @abfixby.bsky.social · 6h

.... Functional it may have been, but in addition to the more traditional inn sign at the front of the premises, the builders set two fine mosaics into the side wall. Sadly the pub is no more.

Alan Burnett @abfixby.bsky.social · 6h

The Beehive and Cross Keys in King Cross Street, Halifax was built in 1932 following the demolition of two earlier pubs: yes, you guessed it, the Beehive and the Cross Keys. The new pub was a functional 1930s affair designed by local architects Walsh and Maddocks. ....

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Alan Burnett @abfixby.bsky.social · 1d

.... There is a wonderful naturalness about such photos - as in this one which features my Auntie Annie and Uncle Harry.

Alan Burnett @abfixby.bsky.social · 1d

In the days before smartphone selfies, many personal photographic archive would be populated by "Walking Snaps". Professional photographers would line seaside promenades and take random shots of passing visitors, and prints would later be displayed in shop windows and be available for purchase. ..

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Alan Burnett @abfixby.bsky.social · 2d

It's a funny thing, faith. It asks you to park reason up a side street and wander the streets looking for meaning. Maybe there is meaning, but there again, maybe there is just an infinite greyscale of uncertainty. Or maybe there is just an old photo of Cross Rhodes Street in Halifax.

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Alan Burnett @abfixby.bsky.social · 3d

.... Such calculations are an exhausting and slightly pointless exercise - something akin to carrying a chair in the hot Spanish midday sun as depicted in this photograph (82,637/105,369).

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Alan Burnett @abfixby.bsky.social · 3d

My Lightroom Catalogue currently has 105,369 photographs I have taken stored on it. A quick calculation suggests that is in the region of 1,368 and a half photos a year, which is a fair old number. ....

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Alan Burnett @abfixby.bsky.social · 4d

.... Those wanting to test the assertion might want to pop into the excellent Big Six pub, just off to the right in the image, and try a pint of their splendid beer.

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Alan Burnett @abfixby.bsky.social · 4d

The image is taken from an old picture postcard from my collection, and it is a scene that most Halifax folk will be familiar with. The water fountain was presented to the town in 1869 by the temperance campaigner, Joseph Thorp. Carved on it is the slogan, "Water Is Best". ...

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Alan Burnett @abfixby.bsky.social · 5d

I've spent a fair amount of my life taking phots, and whenever I am tempted to question whether I would have been better off doing something else, I look at photos like this one. It's not a great photo; it's badly cropped and full of distracting shadows. But it's my father, and it's priceless.

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Alan Burnett @abfixby.bsky.social · 6d

.... Within a couple of years, the building, the lines, and the hanging bar were but memories, but memories captured in an inconsequential image.

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Alan Burnett @abfixby.bsky.social · 6d

Given enough time, even the most inconsequential images acquire value from a social and historical perspective. Walking under Halifax's North Bridge over half a century ago, I was taken by the hanging measuring bar on the old railway sheds. ....

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Alan Burnett @abfixby.bsky.social · 7d

... The damage to the photo tells a far deeper story - who was torn out of the family history and why?

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Alan Burnett @abfixby.bsky.social · 7d

Every picture tells a story, but very often, half a picture tells even more of the story. The picture tells the story of that moment in time when the shutter fired - the family gathered on the doorstep. I have no idea who they are - the photograph was part of a batch of unwanted memories. ...

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Alan Burnett @abfixby.bsky.social · 8d

... Britannia sits aloft, holding a trident and a TV aerial.

Alan Burnett @abfixby.bsky.social · 8d

The industrial north has always excelled when it comes to contrasts: dark and light, green and grey, smoky chimneys and graceful statues. This photograph of mine is from the 1970s and shows the back of the Britannia Building, which stands at one end of Elland Bridge. ....

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Alan Burnett @abfixby.bsky.social · 9d

... nor is it the convivial company - pubs don't make it easy for someone who is profoundly deaf to keep up with conversations. I probably need to give it more thought - and where better to do so than in a fine old pub. Here's one I haven't been in for forty years or more.

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Alan Burnett @abfixby.bsky.social · 9d

Looking back at my life, I must say that there have not been all that many times when I have been happier than when I was sitting in a pub. It isn't easy to analyse the attraction: it's not necessarily the drink - I'm quite happy to let a single pint share my evening with me -

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Alan Burnett @abfixby.bsky.social · 10d

.... Ponies grazed on regenerative pastures.

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Alan Burnett @abfixby.bsky.social · 10d

Enough of all this modern stuff, with seagulls screaming and tall ships leaving. It's back home and back in time, back forty or more years, back to a Halifax in transition. Carpets had gone but commerce hadn't arrived, the chimneys were smokeless, but the trees hadn't grown. ...

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Alan Burnett @abfixby.bsky.social · 11d

It's not the leaving of Liverpool that grieves me,
But the thought I might not be home in time for tea

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Alan Burnett @abfixby.bsky.social · 12d

The building in the background is the rather magnificent former Birkenhead Town Hall. The bird in the foreground is a seagull who told me his name was Stanley. The photographer was simply a visitor to Birkenhead.

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Alan Burnett @abfixby.bsky.social · 13d

… It was a delight to see a later version of that iconic vessel moored in Canning Dock today, refurbished and converted to a floating bar and restaurant. Tomorrow I intend to step on board for a pint.

Alan Burnett @abfixby.bsky.social · 13d

When I was a little lad we would come to New Brighton on holiday. We would get the train to Liverpool and then take the Mersey ferry "across the water". Very often, that ferry would be the Royal Daffodil. …

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Alan Burnett @abfixby.bsky.social · 14d

Going To Liverpool today. I was there this time last year. Here's one I took then.

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