Welshot Imaging

Hidden Gems of Bradford, Undercliffe Cemetery & Saltaire

with Adrian Wilson

Saturday 09 October 2010 from 11:00 to 20:30 Bradford and Saltaire

Meet at Undercliffe cemetery in the outskirts of Bradford at 11AM.

The cemetery stands on a hillside overlooking the city, idea for trying your panoramic skills or using your long lenses to pick out distant details.

It contains some very impressive monuments, in a variety of styles. It is a notable example of a Victorian cemetery in which a number of rich and famous Bradford Dignitaries and residents have been buried. Some of them Mayors, Lord Mayors and Mill owners, notably the Illingworth's memorial, which is an Egyptian tomb which is very photogenic.

For the photographer, there is masses of potential, with:

• old graves covered in brambles
• beautiful grass paths lined with trees
• long avenues of tombs
• high imposing monoliths and little discrete graves

Ideas for photography include:

• Practice using your long lens to focus on one stone, and have other stones blurred.
• Maybe try using flash to create a dark brooding sky, then a normally lit stone
• Try Panoramic shots on the main avenue
• Use your wide lenses to produce creative angles on the stones.
• Create a mini project – maybe seeking out all the sculptural detail on the stones, there’s some amazing craftsmanship gone into the memorials.

The cemetery is listed by English Heritage in their Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England and is maintained by the Undercliffe Cemetery Charity and volunteers.

The cemetery was used as a location in the film Billy Liar.

Also here's a page with more information from the graveyard:-

http://www.hiddenhistory.webuildwebsites.co.uk/undercliffe_cemetery.html#galleria-1.0b/image/img/closeupegypt.jpg

Lunch

Will be at one of Bradfords famous Indian Restaurants.

Saltaire

A few miles out of the centre of Bradford lies the "model village" of Saltaire, it is named after Sir Titus Salt who built a textile mill and this village on the River Aire. In December 2001, Saltaire was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

The village consisted of:

• Salts Mill, which produced 17 miles of cloth every day,
• neat stone houses for the workers,
• alms houses for the poor and needy,
• a girls' and boys' school and an institute,
• shops,
• wash houses,
• a hospital,
• churches and a park

 

The Village still stands and most of the buildings have survived even if their function has changed, so plenty of variety for the photographer.

When arriving at Saltaire, we'll park in the main carpark behind the mill. Here we can walk around the mill and take in the huge size of it from close proximity – including the massive chimney that just towers above everything in the village

From here we spend time looking around the mill, then on to the chapel – a unique rounded building where Titus himself is buried. The building is a real architectural gem and very photogenic.

Next we shall cross over the Leeds Liverpool canal and take a look at the reflections in the water from the bridge between the new and old mill. You can get some very striking patterns and abstracts from here.

Onwards over the River Aire, where we see a lovely weir to photograph, and also reflections of the main mill buildings in the still weir water.

From here we shall walk around the park – hopefully there will be a cricket match on so we can capture a very typical British summer scene. Around the park there are views of the mills and the chapel, and a huge statue of Titus, along with a tree lined avenue.

Depending on time, we can either head back to the village straight away, or take a short walk along the Leeds Liverpool canal – which at this time of year should be lush and green with lots of flowers to capture. There are a few locks on this stretch too.

Once back to the village, and depending on time, we can go into the Mill which is now an art gallery housing some David Hockney work, amongst many others.

From the mill, we can then discover the village itself – there is the Victoria Hall, the old institute and a many other bigger buildings, but it's the small houses themselves that are the attraction here. All on a hill, all looking very similar and at the end of each row, there's usually a bigger house, which makes for lovely photographs if you make them black and white or sepia.

After an hour or 2 around the village, we will finish off – maybe with a pint in Fanny's Ale house.

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