Piece Hall, Halifax

The picture I have taken of the Piece Hall were done on a few occasions, the building being one of historical interest and basically it's on my doorstep. My first visit with a camera was in December 2013, armed with just a Samsung Tablet this was around the time I was just starting to take an interest in photography. I wanted to take a few pictures as the hall was due to close in January 2014 for a 3 year, £19million restoration project. I then returned in 2017 after the Piece Hall had reopened and you can see the transformation of the building from a tired old space to a shopping, leisure and community space.

The Piece Hall was opened on the 1st January 1779 as a place for people to trade cloth they had produced. As the cloth industry became larger and more industrialised the hall saw a decline in traders and was purchased by the Halifax Corporation in 1868 with conversion to a wholesale market following soon after. This is how the remained until 1971 when the wholesale market was dispersed and demolition of the hall was considered. Over the following years the hall underwent a refurbishment and was reopened as a tourist destination on the 3rd July 1976 including shops, museum and an art gallery. There was also an open air market added during this era before once again declining visitor numbers had the now Calderdale Council considering the best way forward for the building. A plan was put together with funding from various sources to refurbish the hall and it closed to the public on the 16th January 2014 to undergo a 3 year long refurb. The hall was reopened on the 1st August 2017 (Yorkshire Day) and provides restaurants, bars, shops and live entertainment including music concerts and has been the starting point for the Tour de Yorkshire.

Granted Grade I listed status on the 3rd November 1954, the reasons given for this were as follows

Historic interest
Rarity. It is the only remaining cloth hall in Yorkshire
Architectural interest
Architectural layout.

The hall is overlooked by Beacon Hill and the Square Church spire, which is all that remains of the church damaged by fire and partially demolished in the 1970's. The spire now forms part of the recently opened Halifax Central Library.

The hall also has a couple of supernatural stories linked with it, don't all old buildings. One of the units in the south west corner of the hall is said to be haunted by the ghost of a young girl known as Amy. The TV show Derek Acorah's Ghost Towns also broadcast from the hall in March 2006. In a segment of the show broadcast from the cellars at the hall, he claimed to have made contact with spirits known as Mary and another one known as Joseph. Another story from the hall is of the Hand Prints. Many local legends spring from these, at the westgate entrance to the hall are a pair of hand prints on the wall, sadly although still visible not as much as they once were. A couple of the more popular theories are that a local with was responsible for the prints, or the more well known story is that they were put there by a murderer as he was making his escape.

The pictures were taken on several occasions with various cameras, they can all be seen below or un-watermarked on Clickasnap by clicking on any picture a link should open in another window.

This set below was taken with a Nikon d3300 on the 12th October 2019.

The pictures below were taken with a Samsung Galaxy Tablet on the 1st December 2013. This was before the halls refurbishment.

The following pictures were taken on the 20th October 2018 with a Nikon d3300.

The following pictures were taken with a Nikon d3300 on the 3rd October 2017.

This final set of pictures was taken with a Nikon d3300 on the 22nd September 2019.

Thanks for looking, please take a moment to share and follow me on social media, clicking any image should open a link in another window to the un-watermarked version on Clickasnap.

All the pictures remain the copyright of Colin Green.

McInroy's Point, Gourock to Portavadie, Scotland

This set of pictures was taken in December 2015 whilst taking a delivery to Portavadie, Argyll & Bute, Scotland. At the time I was taking a delivery of Doors to a redevelopment near Portavadie Marina and realising I would probably never be in this area again snapped a number of pictures.

The journey started at the ferry terminal McInroy's Point, Gourock on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and once across the Forth took in a number of A and B roads until I reached Portavadie on Scotland's west coast a distance of over 30 miles. The journey is one of outstanding views and passes through a number of small settlements as well as Tarsan Dam, Kylies of Bute, Holy Loch, Riddon Loch and Striven Loch.

The pictures were taken on the 15th December 2014 using a Polaroid is2132 bridge camera.

The clip features all the images in a slide show video. The images below are a selection of the ones pictured on Flickr and Clickasnap that were taken on the journey. The rest can be seen on the Flickr album or video above.

The pictures below were recently re-edited for Clickasnap, they are a small selection of the 80+ I took whilst driving the route. Clicking any of them should open a link in another window to the un-watermarked version on Clickasnap.

McInroy's Point.

Gourock - Dunoon ferry.

Ardnadam Pier.

Tarsan Dam.

Loch Striven.

The previous 3 images are of the Kyles of Bute.

Thanks for looking, please take a moment to share and follow me on social media. Clicking any image should open a link in another window to the Clickasnap version.

All the pictures remain the copyright of Colin Green.

Watford North Railway Station

Watford North is a railway station serving the Hertfordshire suburb of North Watford. It is the first stop on the Abbey Line, a branch line that runs from Watford Junction to St Albans Abbey. The station is adjacent to the Bushey Mill Lane Level crossing.

The line from Watford Junction to St Albans opened in 1858, with the station at Watford North not following until October 1910. Upon opening the station was called Callowland, which then was a developing residential and industrial area north of Watford, which in 1927 led to the station being renamed North Watford which is the name it has retained since. The station has been unmanned since the infamous Beeching cuts of the early 1960's and has fought off closure threats a number of times.

There have been plans to improve services along the line and at the station in recent years but to date non have come to pass, these include a passing loop nearby to increase services from the current 45min mins each way to less than 30. There was also a plan to run trams along the route in recent years as well as extending the branch line to terminate at St Albans City Railway Station.

These pictures were taken with my Sony phone on the 9th July 2018. They can be seen below or on Clickasnap.

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All the pictures remain the copyright of Colin Green.

J300 RAJ. Daf Truck

J300 RAJ was my final chariot at RAJ transport a company I happily worked at for over 11 years. The company closed in November 2018, unusually for a transport company for a simple reason, the boss Bob decided it was time to take that well earned retirement. 

This picture was taken a few months earlier to this, normally the trailers we ran with were not sign written along the side, featuring just a yellow stripe along a green curtain. On this day I did have one of only a couple of sign written trailers on the back of my unit as I headed down to Wolverhampton from Huddersfield, this only occurring to me as I stopped off at Stafford services southbound. So I took out my camera snapped the truck and trailer parked up and until today forgot about it. After a little tinkering with the trees in the background, taking the colour away from them this is the end result. Now sadly a distant memory but an enjoyable company to work for. Just thought I would share it as it brought back good memories.

Thanks for looking, please take a moment to share and follow me on social media. Clicking the image should open a link in another window to the un-watermarked version on Clickasnap.

The picture remains the copyright of Colin Green.

Bronte Waterfall, Bridge and the Ruins at Top Withens

I have been sorting through some of my old pictures recently and came upon a set I took in March 2014 whilst walking the moors to the south of Haworth in Search of the Bronte Waterfall and the farmhouse ruins at Top Withens. I have added a number of them together to create a short video of images which can now be viewed here and on YouTube.

The Bronte Waterfall Is a small waterfall located to the south of Haworth. The falls are part of Bronte Country and area of outstanding natural Beauty with links to the famous Bronte family. The bridge that crossers South Dean Beck was washed away by flash flooding in 1989 and rebuilt the following year. There is a plaque there to commemorate this. Following the Bronte Trail in a westerly direction from the falls will lead you to the ruins of Top Withens Farmhouse.

Top Withens is the remains of a moorland farmhouse. Once you arrive you find it hard to imagine that how people made a living in what is a lonely area of moor with only a couple of nearby farms for company, these were abandoned in the 1870's and demolished during the years afterwards. Top Withens farm was also abandoned in the 1870's but a Mr Ernest Roddie brought the farm back into use in 1920 before it was finally abandoned and left to become a ruin in 1926. The house is said to have been the inspiration for the Earnshaw house in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights 

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The pictures below are of the ruins at Top Withens. The full set can be seen in my earlier post on Top Withens.

All the pictures remain the copyright of Colin Green. The full set of 12 pictures at Top Withens can be seen on Clickasnap or my earlier post.