Changing room antics
The far changing room at Cowley boys school, St.Helens, 1976 or 1977.
Not the changing room used for filming the final changing room scene in the film “Chariots of fire” at the other end of the building a few years later. Timer exposure Lubitel II camera on a tripod.
Morning assembly ends
The headmaster leaves the stage after morning assembly at Cowley Boys School in St.Helens in the late 1970s.
Waiting for the bus
Early morning routine, taking a bus into St.Helens town centre from a bus stop in Haydock. Late 1970s.
Mum would have been on her way into work as a cleaner at Blundells on the corner of Chapel Street and my sister Susan would have been on her way to Central Modern school on North Road. I would have a second journey from town to Cowley boys school, sometimes also by bus but most of the time by walking.
Part of the daily drudge to wake up early and walk three quarters of a mile to the bus stop, nice on sunny days not so much on a grey rainy day.
1975 Street scene
The St.Helens I remember from my youth. I was thirteen and a half when I took this (I have a very clear memory of taking this image).
Unofficial school year photograph.
Some of my fellow 5th form pupils. Approx 1977.
Cowley Boys School. St.Helens
Industrial herritage
Some of the older industrial buildings for Pilkingtons Glass Works were still standing in the late 1970s.
St.Helens.
its raining again
A miserable wet 1970 winters day in a northern town. The Victorians made the Industry but they also provided the park.
The dangling conversation
My photography started in the third year of secondary school, fellow 13 year old pupil Ian Griffiths showed me his Russian Zenith B camera and I just knew I had to get a proper camera and start taking photographs.
common name
I attended a function in London recently. One of the attendees asked my name and when I told him his instant reply was that it was a very common and undistinguished name. A little abrupt but he had a point.
Self Portrait 1970s
Listening to a Radio 4 play, one of the episodes of the Foundation Trillogy by Isacc Asimov in 1977. One year later I was listening to the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy in the same bedroom on the same Radio Cassette. Radio 4 became a part of me in those days when something new and interesting was always just around the corner…
Favorite quote from HitchHikers:
“Many men of course became extremely rich, but this was perfectly natural and nothing to be ashamed of because no one was really poor – at least no one worth speaking of.”
– Douglas Adams.
Cowley Boys School. Annual service at the Parish Church.
Ray French and two sixth form prefects at the Church entrance during the Sarah Cowley service in the centre of town.
The Alfred Griffin Memorial
Lost in Bristol
I was in Bristol for the Wildscreen festival and decided to go for a walk.
In one of the city squares an area was cordoned off for rebuilding but you could still kind of walk around it.
I spotted these trees overgrowing a statue and it reminded me of a part of the conversation between David Attenborough and Chris Packam at a talk I attended the previous day,
For just a moment, they speculated how the natural world would recover well from the extinction of humans, they didnt dwell long on the subject aware that they may have overstepped some boundary.
In the city centre I caught a little glimpse of the possibility.
Self Portrait
Taken April 1986.
The arrogance of youth,
Looking back now all I see is the poor way I treated other people close to me, I owe many apologies.
Seeing the years in pictures invites insight and self questioning, sometimes its not pretty.
I have made plenty of mistakes and bad judgments. I have many regrets.