Praktica BMS Third Film. Taken at St Johns Church Barkerhouse Road Nelson Lancashire England. October 2025
- Kamera Ostalgie
- Oct 13
- 3 min read
Whilst the Praktica BMS was out of its cupboard, I thought I would put another film through it, but with its original 50mm Prakticar lens. Once again my usual Agfa black and white film was loaded up and I went off to photograph a local churchyard that is slowly falling into a total state of disrepair, full of litter, weeds, brambles and rubbish. The gravestones are gradually falling over or being vandalised, so I thought it was about time it was documented before it is no more.
The sun was out as I arrived at St Johns Church in Nelson, but it did not last very long before the rain clouds appeared. After hanging about in the graveyard for a while hoping for better light, I gave up and took the pictures anyway. I mean there is only so long you can loiter in a graveyard!
I have taken this shot on previous visits but on digital, what I like is in the background there is on of the few Mill Chimney's left standing in Nelson just beyond the graveyards boundary. It makes me think how many of the people at rest here worked in one of these mills? Quite a few I should imagine.
As I ran out of film, the clouds dispersed, the rain stopped and blue sky appeared. I chuntered to myself, but looking at the pictures now God did me a favour, the better pictures were taken in the rain, only the first picture is not how I wanted it to turn out.
But what will happen to places like this in the near future, congregations dwindling, less people who remember, so what will be the fate of this once peaceful and well kept place? I hope society starts to care again, maybe we are not far off turning the corner, surely we can't carry on the path we are presently travelling on sliding further into chaos and darkness?
There are quite a lot of War Graves in this churchyard, from the 1914-18 conflict. They are not that well kept, here, in their home town, not like you see in France or Flanders. Maybe I should try and photograph them all just out of respect.
I hope you liked this somewhat different and maybe more solemn post. The Praktica BMS coped well with the dull conditions, it maybe could have been a little sharper, but the lens was quite well open, so I can live with it.
There are lots of places like this in North West England in and around the old mill towns of the Lancashire and West Riding of Yorkshire border. Post industrial revolution, the work went, the mills closed, Churches lost their congregations and Public Houses their drinkers, communities collapsed, prosperity went elsewhere. But they are still great places, with great people, still hanging on to a lost way of life. Maybe we should record these places, these people, before they are no longer there?
Phil
