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Museum and has been archived for future generations to look back at the district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:
January 31st 2000
Location: Various Locations
Photographer's Diary
31st January The Yates
Another early start for me, reaching the Yates household by 6.15 to catch them waking up. Louise Yates is the sister of my wife. Married for 10 years now with husband Anthony they had produced five sons, the youngest of which was just one. I had chosen their family as a representation of middle class family life although they are by no means representative of the whole. That proved to be impossible.
The Yates lived at the end of Yealand drive in Scotforth. Anthony worked in directly for the water board and Louise was a nurse. I had asked them to keep me up to date with their schedules and this Monday seemed perfect.
There was nothing new at breakfast. I kept thinking to myself these pictures will only become valuable in years to come. Just before 7 AM I drove over to Skerton to catch Louise just finishing her night duty. She worked two nights a week and then returned home to look after the baby. I found Louise enthusiastic as ever but with nothing more interesting than filling in forms on her computer. "This computer" she claimed "is so old the Millennium bug managed to get to it." Her colleague, exhausted from her nights visits refused to be photographed, though I managed to sneak her into one shot - she was visually more interesting than the computer.
Returning to the house, Anthony had gone to work and Sarah, a niece and baby-sitter was on duty until Louise returned. They fought over which TV station to watch with the one who had the remote control getting the final say. Louise returned, they brushed their hair and set off in a multitude of directions to start the day.
After walking to school with the three eldest boys and a neighbour I snuck off to try and catch the Trident Protesters performing their morning ritual. All I found was a security guard who told me the case needed more time. Before escaping he then went into a long monologue as to the rights and wrongs of protesting. He obviously had found this case disturbing and wanted to tell someone - looking like a journalist I got the lot.
After a quick visit to Newton to show Gerry his pictures I returned home, giving Louise a chance to sleep for an hour (provided Jack - the baby obliged by doing likewise).
My morning tasks were to get the boys at school/nursery and then return to see Louise at lunch. This I did without too much of a problem, though the head teacher of St Bernadette's primary school insisted on personally escorting me round the school. She was short on time and words, but I got a few pictures as needed.
Louise was up and now with Jack and Jordon. I made a few frames of them at home and then set off for Blackpool. Anthony was working on a new housing estate. By the time I arrived he was finishing and waiting for the delivery of more materials. He told me to have a go at using the digging machine, which I dutifully did but can't say it had been my childhood dream to do so. It was raining, mucky and I left with a few standard pictures.
Jacob, the eldest son was at a party. I found him and guests and again made a few frames, though I did not feel that welcome and could not be bothered to explain the project. Returning to the House to shoot the making and eating of tea, I then found myself running to the Folly office to send an insurance fax for Anthony. A small favour for letting me into his family life for a day.
I picked up Jacob on the way back, I was late and in a hurry. The Yates' were season ticket holders at Blackburn rovers and tonight was a 5th round tie against Newcastle United. We jumped into their van and set off straight away leaving the three youngest boys at home with the baby-sitter. It was normally only 40 minutes to Ewood park but Newcastle had 8,000 travelling supporters and sure enough we found ourselves crawling along watching the clock. As we sat down the game kicked off. 30,000 fans chanted and screamed as the teams fought it out. 1-0 to Newcastle, Alan Shearer (a former rovers man) shot from 20 yards. Jansen the latest Blackburn idle replied 1-1 and the noise got louder. Rovers were a division behind the premiership opposition but had beaten Liverpool in the last round and were favoured to win. Finally Shearer finished it off with a fine strike and the home crowd disappeared unhappy at the loss. I shot a few frames, but found myself getting caught up in the emotion.
Returning home I said my goodbyes and left the Yates' to face another day.