I recently posted a retrospective of the images I’d created since I became a freelance after being made redundant from my local newspaper the Keighley News.
So I thought I’d also take a look back at some of the photos I took during my 31 years as a staff press photographer. Because I was an employee, they’re not my copyright but as part of my redundancy agreement Newsquest granted me permission to use my pictures as part of my portfolio to publicise myself.
I kick off with a shot of former premier David Cameron during a visit to the Emily Street Community Centre, with Sayeeda Warsi, the town’s then MP Kris Hopkins and security minister Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones.
And here’s Princess Anne, listening to the forensic science group during her visit to open Keighley Civic Centre. Lord Lieutenant Ingrid Roscoe is looking over her shoulder.
As well as national notables, there were local celebrities. These Panache Cheerschool’s cheerleaders were heading for the USA to demonstrate their skills.
It always seemed to me that, bearing in mind our climate, how strange it is that England’s national summer game couldn’t go ahead when it was raining. These cricketers at Steeton were able to keep their spirits up as the covers went on the wicket.
The 2012 Olympics saw Tanzanian athletes use the track at University Academy, Keighley as their training ground. Here, Oakworth Primary School pupils join in a session with the Olympians.
The Markazi Jamia mosque held an open day to let the public see what went on within its walls. Here, girls study the Qur’an.
An annual event in the village of Haworth is the torchlit parade, when locals make their way up Main Street as part of the Christmas festivities.
No-one could deny the hard-knocks nature of rugby league. Here, Keighley Albion player Andy Stokes has determination written on his face as he tackles a West Bowling opponent.
Ok, so it’s not Abbey Road, but I thought I’d do a little local reconstruction for these musicians visiting a primary school in Sutton in Craven.
Andy Burnham, who was then shadow health secretary, was joined by Labour prospective parliamentary candidate John Grogan during his visit to Airedale Hospital.
Andy Kissack shows off a replica of the Nazi code machine, which was used in the film Enigma, in front of a model of Alan Turing’s machine he was building for the 1940s weekend.
From a time when the press was allowed to enter the floor of the election count, this is Labour candidate Vanda Greenwood winning the seat in Windhill and Wrose.
Here on a flying visit, literally, was television star Anneka Rice, captured during the filming of Channel 4’s Treasure Hunt, which saw her helicoptered around the Worth Valley to pick up clues to guide studio contestants in their quest to win cash prizes.
Arguably the most famous person to step in front of my lens was Princess Diana. Access to royal visits was closely controlled and there are always close-protection officers looking after royal personages. Shortly after snapping this shot of Diana during her visit to the Manorlands hospice, I felt my collar being yanked backwards by one of the police officers, so I didn’t get too close to her. The picture was used across the whole broadsheet front page of the Keighley News.
The Sinclair C5 was tech entrepreneur Clive Sinclair’s supposed solution to the personal transport question. It had an electrical motor and pedals to power its progress, but shortly after I took this photo, the hills of Keighley defeated it and reporter David Knights, who was test-driving the vehicle, had to dismount and push it up Woodville Road.
There was a huge turn-out in 2002 for the funeral of Qadir Ahmed, who was brutally killed in a gang ambush near Victoria Park. Seven men were subsequently found guilty of conspiracy to murder.
Typical British weather put a bit of a dampener on the brilliantly named Airedo music festival held in Cliffe Castle park.
The then Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey raises smiles from schoolchildren during his visit to the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway.
Thankfully I escaped unstung from this assignment for a feature on a bee-keeper in the Keighley area.
There was another buzz in town when Keighley hosted the international premiere of the film Blow Dry. One of its stars, Bill Nighy, enjoyed a tipple or two at a town-centre pub before heading to the Picture House for its first screening.
I was on hand to photograph this well known character in Haworth. Thomas the cat was a ubiquitous figure around the village and turned up at many events. Oh, and Prime Minister Tony Blair paid a visit to the Brontë Parsonage Museum.
Education secretary Ed Balls demonstrated his pool-playing skills during a visit to a project at Dalton Mills, long before turning on the Gangnam Style for Strictly Come Dancing.
Carl Metcalfe was the controversial chairman of Keighley Cougars during the club’s interesting phase in the 1990s. He dubbed himself Mr Midas, but it all ended in tears when he was jailed for producing fake Ecstasy tablets. He died in Manorlands in 2015.
The then Prince Charles was well liked by press photographers as he had a keen sense of what we wanted for our pictures and paused for just enough time to allow us to get our shot. Here, he’s sampling the nose on a glass of Timothy Taylor’s ale during a visit to the Knowle Spring brewery.
Word reached the newsroom that singer Cliff Richard was in the Haworth area researching for his upcoming musical Heathcliff. With a bit of local sleuthing I managed to find him on his way back down from Top Withins, and he was happy to pause for a pose and a chat.
Cougarmania was at its height in the 1990s, with the Keighley rugby league team attracting big crowds and reaching the division two championship finals. Here’s board member Mick O’Neill sporting a cowboy hat during the celebrations at Old Trafford, Manchester.
Not all my sports photography was so exciting. When rain stopped play at a cricket match, I still needed some pictures to file. Here’s the scene in one of the local club’s dressing rooms while players took a break waiting for things to dry up.
At the time, we had a sports editor who was always on the lookout for different activities to cover. Here’s an angling tournament on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.
Our area has always attracted film production crews and on one occasion actor Paul McGann offered us the chance for an interview and an opportunity to grab some pictures of him between shooting.
And Jenny Agutter drew big crowds when she returned to Oakworth Station for the 25th anniversary of the filming of The Railway Children.
Very early in my career I covered the story of a local woman whose hobby was to breed tiny Yorkshire terriers – or pint-sized pooches in newspaper parlance. So what better way to illustrate this than by persuading Fleur to pose in a pint glass.
More animal antics with a visit to Jean Smith, who bred monkeys and kept them at her Keighley home. While taking pictures of her with her simian charges, one of them was perched on my shoulder trying to change my camera settings.
A lesser known sport I covered was knurr and spell. It’s an ancient game that’s pretty much died out except among a small number of enthusiasts. The player taps the spell with his bat, and a spring launches the knurr into the air, which is then hit, with the aim of propelling it the farthest distance.
Cricket shots often consisted of standard bowler in the air about to deliver, or batter driving the ball to the boundary, but this is the moment players appeal for a run-out, with all eyes on the umpire. The raised finger signifies the batter will be heading back to the pavilion.
I had a rare trip to London to cover the celebrations of Cross Roads couple Tommy and Elaine McDonagh who won more than £1m on the football pools. The announcement was made at the Motor Show at Olympia where hordes of photographers scrambled over the expensive Rolls-Royce convertible the couple were posing in.
I was just a few months into my career when the 1983 general election was called, which meant plenty of top politicians descending on the town. Here, Geoffrey Howe saunters past the Job Centre in Low Street, with a very young William Hague in tow. The Conservatives would win a landslide victory and Gary Waller would beat Labour’s Bob Cryer into second place by 2,774 votes.
A more regular visitor to Keighley was former Labour Chancellor Denis Healey, who grew up in Riddlesden. A keen photographer himself, he always knew how to put on a show for the gathered press, though I think I caught him unawares as he emerged from the toilets at East Riddlesden Hall.
Princess Margaret, on the other hand, could be notoriously ungracious with the press and we snappers had only a few moments huddled into the corner of this room at the Brontë Parsonage Museum to get our pictures before she signalled enough was enough and we were ushered out.
Another rare outing for me outside the local area meant a trip to Donington race track in Leicestershire to capture pictures of motorcyclist Robin Appleyard testing his bike at the circuit.
Speed’s not always a good idea as this driver on Bradford Road at Riddlesden found out when I accompanied police mounting a radar safety campaign in the days before fixed speed cameras.
Another early career assignment was accompanying the paper’s arts and entertainments writer Peter Cooke for in interview and photoshoot with television star Rowan Atkinson at the Alhambra Theatre.
In 1995 Keighley played host to a round of the Rugby League World Cup when South Africa played Fiji at Lawkholme. Here’s the Fiji contingent putting on a colourful show before the start of the match.
Big fires were thankfully few during my time with the Keighley News, but I chanced across this major blaze at the Netto supermarket building one evening. Despite the efforts of firefighters, the flames slowly consumed the building, gutting it. It would prove to have been started by arson.
Looking back, I consider myself very fortunate to have worked for three decades recording the multitude of events, communities and oddities in my home town and lament the fact that it’s highly unlikely anyone else will be afforded that chance, following the marked decline in local journalism.
Happily, I’m still able to work as a freelance, capturing this fascinating world and meeting some amazing people. I’m still an active member of the National Union of Journalists and will continue to support my colleagues working in the media.
All these photographs, taken by me as a staff photographer, are copyright of the Keighley News/Newsquest, used with permission granted to me as part of my redundancy settlement.