On the road from Hebden to Oxenhope /Keighley

These temperatures (-4) really make me think about how people used to live around this landscape. How did they cope with the cold, without the comforts we now take for granted and rely on. How did they keep warm? snow, ice – fire, heat…this duo occurs repeatedly in my work

I know when the time is right I will do some work on a more abstract level with fire & ice, (melting, steam, water, power), but this project has conjured up a house in model form , made from sorrel picked from the snow landscape below. The resulting shack refers to the shanty town Navvyopolis , built near Widdop to house the men constructing the reservoirs,Widdop & the Gorples.

I took the house on a journey today and photographed it in a couple of locations.

Just off the road to Widdop- on the top of the slope above Hardcastle Craggs

off the Long Causeway, just into Lancashire.

I think I will be out again tomorrow, to discover some more locations for the house.

I’m also hoping to get in touch with a local historian, John Billingsley, who might have some information on Navvyopolis. Also The Packhorse Pub on Widdop Rd has info on the railway that was specially constructed to carry materials up onto the top for the reservoir- I feel a visit coming on!

And back over to the Keighley Rd as above . I’ve just finished playing around with this image & am happy with it.

it conveys the cold, and the isolation  that must have been felt (perhaps still is) by anyone living up on the moors before electricity, 4×4 cars, central heating, internet, TV, hot running water, proper roads ….. etc.  Vulnerability to the elements and weather.