Bradford’s wonderful trolleybuses were in their final months of service when I took this view of BUT/Weymann 758 (FKU758) in Forster Square in May 1971. We can assume the Ford Cortina Mark 2 nosing into view was long ago reduced to razor blades. Looming above is the concrete block of either Forster House or Central House, designed by the notorious John Poulson and a characteristically shoddy development. Completed in 1967, the block was demolished in 2004. That just leaves the one surviving feature still in situ, the statue of William Edward Forster (1818-1886), Bradford’s MP and statesman, famed for the Education Act of Gladstone’s government. Trolleybus 758 happily survives, but away from Bradford.
May 1971
Zorki 4 35mm camera
Boots colour slide film.
Tags: William Edward forster john poulson Forster square weymann Bradford corporation transport fku758 trolleybus Bradford
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How many thousands of photographs have been taken from this vantage point on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway over the past half-century? My pic dates from May 1971 and show ex-LMS Black 5 5025 running on the final stretch of the line between Haworth and Oxenhope. The loco was a stalwart of the early days of KWVR operation, later heading north of the border to Boat of Garten at the Strathspey Railway.
Just days before my visit, I had blown a big part of my student budget on Colin Gifford’s mighty tome, ‘Each A Glimpse’. I did not need to be on drugs for a mind-blowing experience. Fired by the wish to emulate the Master and rueing the fact that I had missed out on photographing the final days of BR steam, I made tracks to Keighley, my first of subsequent hundreds of visits to heritage railways during the following years. I was thrilled with this result, but the colours of the Boots own-brand film that I used quickly faded, and I assumed this view was lost to posterity. My iPhone software has brought the scene and memories back to life, a day of joy to me.
May 1971
Zorki 4 35mm camera
Boots colour-slide film.
Tags: br 45025 lms black 5 Keighley & worth valley railway heritage railway kwvr bronte country Haworth
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That question regularly came up in the application forms I was filling at the time. If I was invited for an interview, my answer usually prompted further discussion. It must be remembered that devotees of Victorian architecture were thin on the ground in the late 1960s/early 1970s. It was generally deemed to be ugly and few tears were shed when the buildings were swept away for something clean and modern.
Likewise industrial landscape, vistas of Dark Satanic Mills, belching foundries and a forest of smokestacks did not accord with ideals of a White-Hot Technological Revolution in go-ahead Britain.
But I loved all that Victorian stuff. Leeds and Manchester were the Meccas of mills, chimneys and lashings of soot. My then home town of Hull wasn’t too bad either. My favourite stretch was following the winding course of the River Hull, with industries that harked back to the old whaling days and the extraction of oils from the species. British Oil & Cake Mills (BOCM) was one such business, producing cattle feed products. Its large mill was located at a bend in the River Hull. It survives today as a heritage building in other use, but when I recorded this scene in May 1971, the BOCM mill was a hive of activity.
May 1971
Zorki 4 camera
Boots own-brand slide film.
Tags: wilmington industrial landscape coastal vessel British oil & cake mills BOCM wincolmlee river hill hull
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A 1971 scene by Liverpool’s Pier Head. The colour on my original slide had faded badly, so I transformed the view into a black-and-white, in keeping with the spirit of the older times.
May 1971
Zorki 4 35mm camera
Boots film.
Tags: shipping river mersey pier head liverpool
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It’s a wet Sunday in Hull in June 1971 as I join the crowd seeing off the preserved buses setting off on the annual Hull-Bridlington Run. Ribble Leyland TD5 (RN8622) shows off the handsome lines of its postwar Alexander body (built to Leyland designs) has it exits the Ferensway car park. The Boots colour of my original slide has faded badly, so I offer this in black and white.
June 1971
Zorki 4 35mm camera
Boots film.
Tags: Ribble 2057 bus preservation ferensway Alexander bodywork rn8622 Ribble motor services hull hull-Bridlington Leyland td5 ribble
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