Hello Anonymous (who I think is Susan when Blogger was being awkward). The reason I associate 'Perseverance' with 'sinister'is in part because it reminds me of the slogan 'Work Makes You Free' at the entrance to the death camp at Auschwitz and in part because there are lots of moralistic slogans like it Halifax, put up by Victorian mill owners (et al) who were keen to emphasise how good it is to work. Some time I'll show a monument to one of them which has a long sign engraved on the front saying how good it is to work for others - with the clear implication (it seems to me) that the 'others' means the employers.
When the Bronte sisters lived in nearby Haworth life expectancy was 25years, the working environment was so harsh and sanitary conditions so awful.
I've also come across a site which says life expectancy for gentry and tradesmen in 1850 was 55yrs whereas for labourers it was 22.
http://www.calderdalecompanion.co.uk/r.html
I'll have to go back and see if there's a stone which gives the date when this (foundry?) was built but my guess is some time in the 1880s/90s (because of the date of other buildings in the area). Although much may have been done to improve things in the intervening years it's only about 30. I look at these beautiful buildings partly in awe and partly with horror.
The wealth of the country, and thus its present shape, was manufactured in the North West of England. I know I am healthy and happy because other people weren't. It's a discomfiting thought.
(I give the link because it's the first time I've some across this site before.)
Hello Pat. Your remark about the photo of the building with the slogan 'Perseverance Works' . . . The funny thing is that at the time it was built there was such an explosion of building here, Halifax almost amounted to a 'New Town'. The surrounding area too.
5 comments:
Even an old factory in Halifax is beautiful! Sinister was an interesting word to couple with perseverance. =)
Great photo of a historic building.
Too bad there is nothing even close to that old here.
Hello Anonymous (who I think is Susan when Blogger was being awkward). The reason I associate 'Perseverance' with 'sinister'is in part because it reminds me of the slogan 'Work Makes You Free' at the entrance to the death camp at Auschwitz and in part because there are lots of moralistic slogans like it Halifax, put up by Victorian mill owners (et al) who were keen to emphasise how good it is to work. Some time I'll show a monument to one of them which has a long sign engraved on the front saying how good it is to work for others - with the clear implication (it seems to me) that the 'others' means the employers.
When the Bronte sisters lived in nearby Haworth life expectancy was 25years, the working environment was so harsh and sanitary conditions so awful.
I've also come across a site which says life expectancy for gentry and tradesmen in 1850 was 55yrs whereas for labourers it was 22.
http://www.calderdalecompanion.co.uk/r.html
I'll have to go back and see if there's a stone which gives the date when this (foundry?) was built but my guess is some time in the 1880s/90s (because of the date of other buildings in the area). Although much may have been done to improve things in the intervening years it's only about 30. I look at these beautiful buildings partly in awe and partly with horror.
The wealth of the country, and thus its present shape, was manufactured in the North West of England. I know I am healthy and happy because other people weren't. It's a discomfiting thought.
(I give the link because it's the first time I've some across this site before.)
Hello Pat. Your remark about the photo of the building with the slogan 'Perseverance Works' . . . The funny thing is that at the time it was built there was such an explosion of building here, Halifax almost amounted to a 'New Town'. The surrounding area too.
P.S. I'm sending this from my Loose and Leafy account by mistake.
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