Children in the playground of St Peter and St Paul Primary School, Pilkington Road. The school is still open, and the cross remains on the wall of the playground.

…ls in Bolton’s market hall in the early 1980s. The hall has now become an indoor shopping centre. Bolton’s other market on Ashburner Street is still open and bustling (2012). Humphrey Spender revisited and photographed Bolton in the early 1980s for the short film ‘Return Journey’. The documentary was directed by Ian Potts, and funded by the Arts Council and ITV. Bolton Museum hold two rolls of 35mm film which he took during this visit. He photogra…

…y on such stalls and shops as visiting a doctor was expensive. Humphrey Spender was obviously particularly interested in the stall as he took a sequence of eight photographs of it and also wrote an observation which is in the Mass Observation Archive. This is one of only four written observations that we know Spender produced. In it he describes ‘a stoutish woman dressed as a nurse’ who is selling coloured liquids in bottles to enthusiastic custom…

A painted sign for a palmist at Bolton open market with the words ‘Truth is Stranger than Fiction.’ This is one of the most iconic of the Worktown photographs taken by Humphrey Spender. It can be read as an expression of Mass Observation’s philosophy: that when you really examine the seemingly dull details of everyday life they turn out to be more fascinating than any made up story. This is also one of Humphrey Spender’s favourite photographs whi…

…A shoe stall in Bolton’s open market….