Working Man’s Hair Specialist, Bolton Open Market. This is one of the most memorable photographs in the Worktown Archive (along with photograph 1993.83.01.25 of the same subject), and also one of Humphrey Spender’s favourites as he describes in the documentary film Stranger than Fiction: ‘Another favourite is of the open market, actually a misnomer because it is closed…it’s roofed in market in Bolton, where there’s this extraordinary man with an…
Working Man’s Hair Specialist, Bolton Open Market. This is one of the most memorable photographs in the Worktown Archive (along with photograph 1993.83.01.24 of the same subject), and also one of Humphrey Spender’s favourites as he describes in the documentary film Stranger than Fiction: ‘Another favourite is of the open market, actually a misnomer because it is closed…it’s roofed in market in Bolton, where there’s this extraordinary man with an…
…A scout parade crosses open land in front of Bolton’s Open Market. This area is now the bus station (2012)….
…A scout parade crosses open land in front of Bolton’s Open Market. This area is now the bus station (2012)….
…Sommerfield’s ‘The Pub and the People’, to be published by Victor Gollancz of the Left Book Club who had help to fund the Worktown survey. The start of the Second World War and Harrisson’s decision to put Mass Observation at the service of the Ministry of Information meant the book was never completed. However there are a couple of early drafts of the book in the M-O Archive. Harrisson’s first attempt was the highly amusing “A Cannibal comes to Bo…
…member of a group of artists, poets and filmmakers based in Blackheath in London. It was Madge’s letter to the New Statesman in 1936 that inspired Tom Harrisson to contact the Blackheath group and start the Mass-Observation. Madge’s poetry was associated with the surrealist movement which incorporated ideas about popular culture being as valid as high art. This approach tallied with the Mass Observation idea that popular art forms and people’s res…
…cellent books on Bolton’s pubs including Gordon Readyhough’s Bolton Pubs 1800-2000. These books suggested a couple of Castle contenders including the Bolton Castle at the junction of Crompton Way and Tonge Moor Road, named for the Castle Hill district in which it stands. Yet it seemed impossible, even given massive architectural changes that these had ever been the same building. The Elephant and Castle on Deansgate was suggested as possibility bu…
…town Archive and text from the M-O Archive to play stories. Placing images on the jukebox desk activates a projection and audio through radio-frequency transmitter tags implanted in the pictures. Knowing the method doesn’t take away the magic; when I was there people were getting really wrapped up in the experience. These tags are used for identification and tracking and can even be implanted in humans, a dark development of M-O’s surveillance met…
…The Museum of Takeaway Menu Art will be visiting the Worktown Observation Centre, on Knowsley Street on 27 July, and will be accepting menus. You find out more about the event by visiting www.worktownobservation.co.uk/ or visit MoTMA….
…on’s wife, Ethel- curious how she looks like she is texting to the modern eye… Hear, hear Conservatives! “Your Britain is our Britain!” “It will make people spineless to get everything from the state!” “40 hour week would mean closing down!” “Rearmament is one of the best arguments for peace!” Conservative candidate, Herbert Ryan, speaks at election rally in Farnworth. The audience at the Conservative meeting. Update March 1st 2013: There is even…