In Days of Yore.....

In Days of Yore.....

The days of yore I'm referring to are the days when I was just starting to look at photography with greater interest - really from about 1968 or 1969. I knew nothing about it, nor did any of my family and friends, so it was a slow process to learn. I'm going to share some of those very early shots; they are also relevant to yesterday's blog about the demise of Irlams o' th' Height, being the few scraps of pictures I have from before the building of the new road. Quality is not great on these first images as they were shot on my first "serious" camera, a 35mm fixed lens with controls so stiff that they were almost impossible to move. No rangefinder. No exposure meter. No clue. These first images are showing the Heights Service Station, which was opposite the house where we lived. I reprocessed them last night from scans of the original prints.

Looking at the left side of the forecourt



Straight on view



Straight on view including our garden wall



Those were late 1960s. By the 1970s I had moved to a Konica Auto S2 rangefinder camera, still with a fixed lens, and then to a Zenit B with various lenses. This soon led to the Pentax SP1000 with 55mm f/2 and things began to take off. I don't know the exact dates for these 1970s images, but we can start off by looking at the opposite side of Bolton Road from the garage.

The family home



Side view of family home



View from garden looking right along Bolton Road. These shops are still existing today, but the owners have changed.



Looking left along Bolton Road, before the new road was built a subway was created to make the crossing safer.



View from the window of an accident in 1985. The near two lanes are the original Bolton Road, now a local road, and the new A6 can be seen beyond



A street level view of the 1985 accident that involved a large payload being shed



All of this is not a lot to show of the Height, but it is something and for those interested in local history it adds its own small contribution to the story. The moral remains the same, we should think about getting out there and recording today's mundane and ordinary, because in 40 or 50 years time it will gain a whole new perspective.