General Information
During the year 2000 D J Clark built a visual record of the Lancaster &
Morecambe district using photographs and information submitted by those that
feature in the pictures. The project was conducted in association with Lancaster
Museum and has been archived for future generations to look back at the district
at the turn of the new Millennium. For more information on the project visit
the information page. If you find a caption is
wrong or there is a fault with the page please e-mail D
J Clark.
Date:
March 17th 2000
Location: Various Locations
Photographer's Diary
17th March - Builders
It's been over a month since my last major day on the project and I was beginning to worry about a lack of progress. Two weeks of the month I have been in Brazil with a student trip to photograph Carnival - another experience altogether. However, I have a couple of days lined up and projects seem to be falling into line. I am hoping very much to be up to speed with the project by the end of Easter.
Today I started at Ken Yost's house/office in Melling. I had known Ken for several years since his company "Shepherd & Lyth" had converted Folly Gallery. He was a larger than life character with a heart of gold, and someone who was both interested and keen to take part in the project. As seems typical of builders, unfortunately all the great plans he had for extravagant jobs were all on hold and all that was going on was a small loft conversion in Brookhouse.
I turned up at Ken's for 10 AM and he welcomed me into the house. His wife had died some years ago I believe, and he was left to bring up three children. The house was full of trophies, pictures and art that had seen better days. Ken made me a coffee and we talked. His business was small but successful. The building trade appears to be very dangerous, with business' going bankrupt by the day. The problem laid mainly in cash flow and payments. For some reason no one ever wanted to pay for building work and court cases were common. Ken prided himself on quality, this I had experience of but working to a time scale was never his strength.
I went with Ken to the loft conversion. It was, by pure chance, the house of a couple I had photographed their wedding a few years earlier. There was little to shoot though I did my best to grasp a feel for the work. Ken needed to pick some pipes up from his yard in Galgate and his Van from the garage. I volunteered to take him knowing there was little to stick around for. We went to the Caton bank, soon to close as part of a scaling down policy by most high street banks. Hilton Dawson was to launch a campaign to save it "no chance" was Ken's reply. "I'll have to go to Carnforth now, you see getting the money banked that day is important - we often live hand to mouth."
Out to the garage then to the yard, I helped Ken load up the piping. There was a blocked drain at Hornby School he had been called to sort out.