Ashton Moss

Early morning (9.00 a.m.). Bright, sunny, warm.

The Moss coming to life, the trees sprouting leaves, fields newly ploughed, dandelions in flower and grass becoming green.

1-18 Opposite Mr. Hulme's there is an overgrown track leading to some rundown sheds and overgrown fields. I walked along the track and looked in one of the sheds. A fluorescent light hung above an old armchair, at the side of it there was a table with a wireless on it. The room was too dark to photograph. I moved down the track along the line of buildings. I wanted to ask someone if it was O.K. if I photographed them, but there was no one about. Cautiously I photographed the exteriors of the buildings. (Negatives 1-5).

All the sheds were rundown, attached to the side of one was a derelict polythene greenhouse (see negatives 7 and 8), inside a rusted radiator, at one end the remains of an old boiler. The floor was overgrown with nettles. Another shed had a sign on the door: "ELECTRIC METER IN SHED". Around the buildings a skirt of glass was beginning to engulf them.

From the far side (negatives 11, 13 and 14) the sheds vaguely resembled a country railway station - a disused halt in Norfolk, perhaps.

As I walked back to my camera, and began to fold up my tripod, I could see a man spraying a field, walking towards me. He had a large container slung across his back. I waited till he was within shouting distance and asked him if it was alright for me to take a few photographs. He said he had no objections. He'd seen me wandering about before, he said, and already seemed to know what I was doing in the area.

When I asked him about the derelict sheds, he told me the man who worked the estate they were part of had died, and he had taken over the estate, although he said he hadn't got round to doing anything with it. In contrast the land he was working on looked in perfect condition - as did his greenhouses and sheds.

I asked him about whether the greenhouses beyond the football ground were his, "Wrigley and Bennett", he said. I now had a tangible link with that sign on the telegraph pole on Rayner Lane.

The man returned to his spraying. I don't know whether it was fertilizer or insecticide - might have been neither. I returned to the sheds and took a couple more shots (negatives 16 and 17), feeling more comfortable now I had permission to do so.

Roleiflex 3.5F.

Agfapan 100 (80 ASA) Rodinal 1:60. 10 mins @ 68°F.

<span class="wrapper"><p>Work Print</p> <p>Negative c7/1/19/14</p> <p>Work Print c7/3/19/14</p> <p>CH : 510mm</p> <p>Exposure : F22 @ 12s</p> <p>Paper : Gr 2 (G)</p> <p>Comments : The shots are not as high as this photograph might suggest, I was stood in the bottom of a drainage ditch when I took it. This camera angle enabled me to bring together the light coloured shed, polythene lean to/greenhouse and telegraph poles. The foreground is a bit messy, but that's the way it was. The light coloured shed (with the odd stripes) is a funny pink colour, it stands out set against the sky. I like that strange cloud overhead.</p> <p>Another straight print.</p></span>