Bridgegate in Howden is where we find the Yorkshire headquarters of the Press Association (now called the PA Media Group), the organisation which now owns Alamy. The old guy on the mobility scooter is delivering a scoop: “Mafeking relieved”. Well, it was a scoop when he set off...
Licenced last week: Broad Leys, the clubhouse of the Windermere Motor Boat Racing Club (designed by architect Charles Voysey, and built in 1898)...
Well, you learn something new every day. I’ve photographed the tidal reaches of the River Hull on many occasions, often - as here - from the Scale Lane footbridge. Thanks to Google I’m now aware that the building which dominates the scene is Shotwell Tower, built for making lead shot using the drop method. The process was patented in 1782 by Bristol plumber William Watts, who realised that if drops of molten lead fall far enough through the air into water they become spherical: a significant improvement on the shape and quality of lead shot produced by casting…
If history is "written by the victors", then it's unlikely that the author of this biblical passage was a Hittite, Amorite, Canaanite, Perizzite, Hivite or Jebusite…
“When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you. If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. When the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it. As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the Lord your God gives you from your enemies. This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance from you and do not belong to the nations nearby. However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you. Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God”. (Deuteronomy 20:10–18).
Licenced today: a green lane in Dedham Vale, Essex…
At the first opportunity the Aussie lasses have retained the Ashes, so the last two one-day games will be played for pride and pleasure alone. It’s nevertheless been good to watch the games on my laptop, as I drifted in and out of sleep. The single test match was brilliant, with fortunes going first this way, then that. I hope it will encourage the ECB to arrange more women’s test matches (five days, not four, please), and encourage more punters to turn up and watch. The next women’s test match may come this summer, somewhere in England, against South Africa.
Licenced today: a woman window shopping in the little Cotswold town of Broadway…
Though the presumption of innocence is a cornerstone of our legal system, some people are being punished even before their case has been heard. Prince Andrew has lost his royal titles, even though he won’t appear in court until September. A Manchester United player has been dropped by his sponsors after he was arrested - and subsequently bailed - on a charge of rape. And Woody Allen, accused of molesting his adopted daughter, Dylan, has been cleared - twice - of any wrongdoing. Nevertheless, a number of actors have said they would not work with him again (Wallace Shawn, who appears in Allen’s latest film, has pointed out that the director has not been found guilty of any crime). If we continue to make pre-emptive assumptions about a person’s guilt, then we’re heading back to the era of witch trials, kangeroo courts and mob rule: AKA “the court of public opinion”.
Selby Abbey, licenced today…
Crows are being recruited to pick up discarded cigarette butts from the streets and squares in the city of Södertälje, near Stockholm. According to Christian Günther-Hanssen, the founder of Corvid Cleaning, “They are wild birds taking part on a voluntary basis”. For every cigarette butt deposited in a specially designed receptacle, the crows receive a morsel of food. If the pilot scheme is successful - and reduces the cost of keeping the streets clean - it will be rolled out across the city. Tomas Thernström, a waste strategist at Södertälje municipality, said “It would be interesting to see if this could work in other environments as well. Also from the perspective that we can teach crows to pick up cigarette butts but we can’t teach people not to throw them on the ground. That’s an interesting thought,”.
Licenced today: people gathering in Humber Street, Hull, a gentrified thoroughfare, adjacent to the marina, with many trendy shops and bars…
