Alan Burnett
@abfixby.bsky.social
One time teacher, one time writer on European social policy, now retired, walking the dog and doing a little harmless blogging. In love with the interface between words and images.
www.alanburnett.com
www.alanburnett.com
Bright sun and black ice, monochrome trees and wood-blocked paths: our dog took us for a walk down Shepherds Thorn Lane the other day. Thank you, Lucy.
January 11, 2026 at 12:07 AM
Bright sun and black ice, monochrome trees and wood-blocked paths: our dog took us for a walk down Shepherds Thorn Lane the other day. Thank you, Lucy.
Our Sepia Saturday theme this week is "Work In Days Gone By". Most of my family worked in the mills and factories of Yorkshire, but my Great Uncle Albert branched out and became a partner in a firm of motor body builders in Manchester. .....
January 9, 2026 at 11:15 PM
Our Sepia Saturday theme this week is "Work In Days Gone By". Most of my family worked in the mills and factories of Yorkshire, but my Great Uncle Albert branched out and became a partner in a firm of motor body builders in Manchester. .....
This is a photo of mine from sixty years ago of a rural school in Ireland. I'm not sure exactly why I took the photo; maybe I just thought it was a colourful scene, or maybe I thought that it captured a changing world. I looked the school up the other day; it is long gone. .....
January 9, 2026 at 12:30 AM
This is a photo of mine from sixty years ago of a rural school in Ireland. I'm not sure exactly why I took the photo; maybe I just thought it was a colourful scene, or maybe I thought that it captured a changing world. I looked the school up the other day; it is long gone. .....
On the second part of our walk around Halifax in the 1930s, note the snow around Halifax Parish Church (nothing changes, does it?), and the black spire of the town hall punctuating the smoke-stacked atmosphere. .....
January 8, 2026 at 12:06 AM
On the second part of our walk around Halifax in the 1930s, note the snow around Halifax Parish Church (nothing changes, does it?), and the black spire of the town hall punctuating the smoke-stacked atmosphere. .....
I'm inviting you to come and take a walk around Halifax in the 1930 courtesy of an old picture postcard from my collection. Or rather, half a picture postcard - the image is so full of fascinating detail I have divided it into two and you can see the second half tomorrow. .....
January 7, 2026 at 12:06 AM
I'm inviting you to come and take a walk around Halifax in the 1930 courtesy of an old picture postcard from my collection. Or rather, half a picture postcard - the image is so full of fascinating detail I have divided it into two and you can see the second half tomorrow. .....
This is one of the old mills that line the Calder and Hebble Canal as it makes its way through Brighouse. It's like a practical demonstration of every kind of building method known to mankind. If there had been four little piggies in the tale, this is how the fourth piggy would have built his house.
January 6, 2026 at 12:11 AM
This is one of the old mills that line the Calder and Hebble Canal as it makes its way through Brighouse. It's like a practical demonstration of every kind of building method known to mankind. If there had been four little piggies in the tale, this is how the fourth piggy would have built his house.
I think this is somewhere in Halifax, and I believe I took the photograph sometime in the 1960s. My apologies for not being more exact and for not keeping a proper note of when and where these photographs were taken. I keep records now with endless metadata and geotagged locations.....
January 5, 2026 at 12:06 AM
I think this is somewhere in Halifax, and I believe I took the photograph sometime in the 1960s. My apologies for not being more exact and for not keeping a proper note of when and where these photographs were taken. I keep records now with endless metadata and geotagged locations.....
My love of images is very much a love of static images rather than moving ones. I'm not a TikTok type of chap; I've never been comfortable with films and videos. ....
January 4, 2026 at 12:14 AM
My love of images is very much a love of static images rather than moving ones. I'm not a TikTok type of chap; I've never been comfortable with films and videos. ....
My love of old photographs has led me to collect thousands of them over the years and share them with fellow enthusiasts throughout the world. One way in which I do this is via a weekly internet meme, Sepia Saturday, which I started way back in 2009. ....
January 3, 2026 at 12:10 AM
My love of old photographs has led me to collect thousands of them over the years and share them with fellow enthusiasts throughout the world. One way in which I do this is via a weekly internet meme, Sepia Saturday, which I started way back in 2009. ....
When I was young, I became fascinated by a light I saw shining at night in the east. For a time, I flirted with a mystical or even spiritual interpretation, and then my brother told me it was a cinema and dance hall in Wyke. ......
January 2, 2026 at 12:15 AM
When I was young, I became fascinated by a light I saw shining at night in the east. For a time, I flirted with a mystical or even spiritual interpretation, and then my brother told me it was a cinema and dance hall in Wyke. ......
It's the start of a new year, and I always seem to start with a photograph of Dean Clough, Halifax, or the surrounding streets and lanes. I took this particular picture back in 1970, a lifetime ago. Well, hopefully, a little less than a lifetime ago! Happy New Year.
January 1, 2026 at 12:22 AM
It's the start of a new year, and I always seem to start with a photograph of Dean Clough, Halifax, or the surrounding streets and lanes. I took this particular picture back in 1970, a lifetime ago. Well, hopefully, a little less than a lifetime ago! Happy New Year.
And there goes another year, and with it another 365 daily calendar pictures that have taken us through 2025. And today's picture not only represents the 365th of the year, but also the 1,931st since I started this somewhat silly project back in the early days of Covid lockdown. ...
December 31, 2025 at 12:20 AM
And there goes another year, and with it another 365 daily calendar pictures that have taken us through 2025. And today's picture not only represents the 365th of the year, but also the 1,931st since I started this somewhat silly project back in the early days of Covid lockdown. ...
As we edge our way towards 2026, I can do no better than to repeat the sentiments expressed in an advert produced by the Halifax brewery, Richard Whitaker & Sons, 100 years ago: ....
December 30, 2025 at 12:08 AM
As we edge our way towards 2026, I can do no better than to repeat the sentiments expressed in an advert produced by the Halifax brewery, Richard Whitaker & Sons, 100 years ago: ....
I took these two photographs high up in the clock tower of the Crossley & Porter School, Halifax in the Spring of 1967. The first shows the workings of the clock itself; the second shows the view from the clock tower overlooking Albert Promenade. .....
December 29, 2025 at 12:21 AM
I took these two photographs high up in the clock tower of the Crossley & Porter School, Halifax in the Spring of 1967. The first shows the workings of the clock itself; the second shows the view from the clock tower overlooking Albert Promenade. .....
I remember going into an old mill, Batley way. It had long been converted into a furniture warehouse or some such thing, but when you went up in the lift and where the bare stone walls still lined the rooms, there you could still smell the lanolin. ....
December 28, 2025 at 12:09 AM
I remember going into an old mill, Batley way. It had long been converted into a furniture warehouse or some such thing, but when you went up in the lift and where the bare stone walls still lined the rooms, there you could still smell the lanolin. ....
I've no idea who this is a photograph of; it came from one of those job lots of old photos I am so fond of. On the back of the print is written "Much love, Mother, June 1918". The sentiment is lovely and the features are kind and, indeed, rather beautiful. .....
December 27, 2025 at 12:01 AM
I've no idea who this is a photograph of; it came from one of those job lots of old photos I am so fond of. On the back of the print is written "Much love, Mother, June 1918". The sentiment is lovely and the features are kind and, indeed, rather beautiful. .....
It's 1967 - although it might have been 1966 - and it was the Halifax Charity Gala being held at Manor Heath. The precise location of the brass band, outside the tent of the Halifax Deaf Association, was, I am sure, not meant as any kind of criticism of their musical ability.....
December 26, 2025 at 12:20 AM
It's 1967 - although it might have been 1966 - and it was the Halifax Charity Gala being held at Manor Heath. The precise location of the brass band, outside the tent of the Halifax Deaf Association, was, I am sure, not meant as any kind of criticism of their musical ability.....
A Happy Christmas to all my friends out there on the various social media platforms.
December 24, 2025 at 11:13 PM
A Happy Christmas to all my friends out there on the various social media platforms.
The photograph shows my wife, Isobel, meeting Father Christmas in 1953. Thirteen years later, she met me. We've spent the last fifty-nine Christmases together. It's the best present I've ever had.
December 24, 2025 at 12:04 AM
The photograph shows my wife, Isobel, meeting Father Christmas in 1953. Thirteen years later, she met me. We've spent the last fifty-nine Christmases together. It's the best present I've ever had.
The starting point for today's image was a 1920s photograph from my suitcase full of "found photos." It wasn't in very good condition, so I felt at liberty to "mess around with it" (the digital scan, of course, not the original photograph). ....
December 22, 2025 at 10:02 PM
The starting point for today's image was a 1920s photograph from my suitcase full of "found photos." It wasn't in very good condition, so I felt at liberty to "mess around with it" (the digital scan, of course, not the original photograph). ....
I can be reasonably certain of when I took this photograph looking over Halifax from New Bank because one of the other frames on the negative strip features an advert that references 1966. .....
December 22, 2025 at 12:10 AM
I can be reasonably certain of when I took this photograph looking over Halifax from New Bank because one of the other frames on the negative strip features an advert that references 1966. .....
I always thought that the M1 going over Tinsley Viaduct in Sheffield, with those majestic cooling towers in the background, made a good photo, and I photographed it again and again in the 1980s. .....
December 20, 2025 at 11:56 PM
I always thought that the M1 going over Tinsley Viaduct in Sheffield, with those majestic cooling towers in the background, made a good photo, and I photographed it again and again in the 1980s. .....
Today's image comes from an album of 1920s photographs I acquired last year. The photographs seem to be German in origin - the captions are certainly in German - and they must at one time have been precious holiday photos. ....
December 20, 2025 at 12:42 AM
Today's image comes from an album of 1920s photographs I acquired last year. The photographs seem to be German in origin - the captions are certainly in German - and they must at one time have been precious holiday photos. ....
I took this photograph of the lower Calder Valley near Elland back in the early 1980s. There is no scientific reason why digital photographs should turn sepia with age, and such a transformation is normally due to some semi-smart Photoshop filter. ....
December 19, 2025 at 12:25 AM
I took this photograph of the lower Calder Valley near Elland back in the early 1980s. There is no scientific reason why digital photographs should turn sepia with age, and such a transformation is normally due to some semi-smart Photoshop filter. ....
Bleached-out sand and shadows as black as Whitby jet. I can still remember spotting this view in Bridlington over fifty years ago and thinking, "That would make a good photo!" It did back in 1971; it still does in 2025.
December 18, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Bleached-out sand and shadows as black as Whitby jet. I can still remember spotting this view in Bridlington over fifty years ago and thinking, "That would make a good photo!" It did back in 1971; it still does in 2025.