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 The project was conducted in association with Lancaster Museum and has been archived for future generations to look back at the district at the turn of the new Millennium.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: August 23rd, October 21st 2000
Location: Church Street, Lancaster

Photographer's Diary

The Crane

Climbing up the ladder I felt my head starting to feel the height With cameras strapped around me I kept going up. Reaching the top, Andy Elston shouted out - "I'll be about ten minutes". He was lifting. I wandered the platform and shot pictures of the landscape that was Lancaster. He was building a new Cinema Complex which was to take some months to complete. I had first cursed the crane which ruined the City Landscape from every angle, but then had the idea of getting up it. By pure chance a student of mine mentioned his father was operating it and from that point I set about getting permission to shoot pictures.

Andy came out telling me I would need a harness. "I've almost finished", I told him. "Not for here, for up there" he said pointing to a balance bar that shot up into the sky with little to hang onto. I put the harness on and Andy took me up. He was surprisingly lax about his own safety. No harness, no helmet. I shot some pictures and returned to photograph Andy on the platform. We talked for some time and then I returned to meet Maggie on her bike.

Saturday 21st October - Crane Pictures

My first visit to the crane was simple and very successful. The Crane that sat in the centre of the City offered a viewpoint we were unlikely to see get for many years to come and I was keen to exploit it. As mentioned before the crane operator, Andy Elston was the father of one of my students and a very fortunate link.

Arriving at the site after a phone call I was met for the first time by the site manager. He was helpful at first offering me the opportunity to put my bag in the safety of his office and saying the crane would not be long. Then in a sudden turn, it all went very wrong. "Have you actually got permission for this photo shoot", then came health and safety, I am responsible, what if you freeze, this is my job on the line you know etc. At the end of all this was a firm "no, I am saying no you can not go up in this crane". I radioed Andy who was down the ladder like a shot and into the supervisor's office. The shouting could be heard from all the passers by as this calm, easy going crane operator turned into a forceful man of will. Two minutes later, Andy emerged, "put the harness on" followed by the site manager "I am taking responsibility for this".

Two minutes later I was being hauled into the sky to a position as far up as I could go. Billy the second man on the job was with me as was Terry, my student who had whipped out of work for the ride. I shot quickly and was rewarded with sunlight breaking on buildings as I turned to shoot them. It was a wonderful view and a very rare opportunity

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