During Keith's visit we managed an afternoon reminiscing about our childhood in Ormskirk, a market town in Lancashire where my wife, Jo and our friend Keith grew up. Keith wanted to see what changes the town had undergone in the years since he moved away and we decided to take our cameras and document those changes. I decided to take my Pentax K1000, fitted my Tamron Adaptall 2 28mm f/2.5 lens and loaded a roll of ilford HP5+ at box speed. It was an overcast day, but nothing Ilford's finest HP5+ can't handle.
It felt good to be back in Ormskirk as I also share some childhood memories with Keith. In the late 1970's and early 1980's I was a member of the Roscoe Scout Band based in the town. Each year there were Parades through the town to commemorate St George's Day in April and Rememberance Sunday in November.
Keith was a member of the Ormskirk Brass Band who led the parade and we only discovered that shared history when Jo and Keith got back in touch with each other a few years ago. Small world eh? Jo always spoke fondly of Keith and she said I would like him. She was right, he's a decent chap and we get on really well.
From our time on parade each year we could both navigate the town centre by the feel of the asphalt through the soles of our shoes. That was the first change we noticed as we stepped onto Church St. The town centre has been totally pedestrianised with the tarmac dug up and replaced with block paving. I remember being able to ride my motorcycle through the town center in 1984, but I would get a ticket for doing it on this day as it was Market Day.
Ormskirk has had a Market since it was granted a Royal Charter by Edward I in the late 13th century. Every Thursday and Saturday local farmers could sell their produce at the market, in recent times this has expanded to include all manner of goods from fresh food to clothing and footwear. The rise of the Supermarket chains over the last 40 years has reduced Ormskirk Market to a fraction of the size I remember it being when I was a kid, but there's still a good selection of stall holders who call Ormskirk Market their home.
Our next stop was Ormskirk Parish Church which gave the town its name. It comes from a norse name, Ormr and it is thought that Ormr became a christian and built the first Kirk (norse for church) on the hill in the 9th century. Over the centuries Ormrs Kirk has evolved to become Ormskirk It's also is a rare Church as it has a tower and a separate spire. Most Churches have one or the other, but there's three in England that have both and only Ormskirk has both at the same end of the building. We couldn't go inside as it was closed, but we did get to pay our repects to friends and family buried in the churchyard.
Last stop was Coronation Park where the bandstand is situated. Keith has a plan to photograph all the bandstands he has performed on and its good to see Ormskirk Bandstand in great condition. We had a wander around the pond where the resident ducks and geese were getting on with parenting this years new born ducklings and goslings before we wandered around to the Cenotaph.
Ormskirk Cenotaph was once situated in another part of town, outside the Comrades of the Great War club. The club closed several years ago, all the men and women from the town who served in WW1 have long since passed on and housing was built on the site. The Cenotaph was moved to Coronation Park where the Rememberance Sunday Parade still stops to pay respect to the fallen every year. We had a good afternoon wandering around and remembering old times and with our film shot, we headed home.
The following weekend I developed my roll of Ilford HP5+ in HC110 dilution B for 6 minutes at 20 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry. I scanned it with my Ion Slides2PC 35mm scanner and processed the images to remove dust spots and scratches with Affinity Photo 2.
Here's a few of my favourites from our afternoon in Ormskirk. It was good to be out on a photo walk with Keith again. Many things about Ormskirk haven't changed much, but the feel of the town centre is decidedly different despite that familiarity. At least we could still enjoy a drink in the oldest pub in town, the Buck I' th' Vine. It's a grade II listed building and well worth a visit. I have placed these photos and more in an album on Flickr you can visit using the link below and I hope you enjoy them.
Pentax K1000 - Ilford HP5
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