About
Introducing Andy Leader.
Welcome to Made In Holmfirth. Photography inspired by the everchanging light and landscape of the Pennines around Holmfirth and Marsden in Yorkshire.
The brown Pennine hills and green walled folds of land here are dog earred and worn. They can take a while to get to know well. Beyond the sour Northern moors and mills lies another landscape of subtle light and mood that shows itself in glimpses.Yet it’s worth waiting for when found.
I was brought up in the countryside and always had a strong connection with the outdoors. My childhood was spent in a small village of 80 houses and we knew everyone. Before the days of wall to wall TV and computer games our entertainment was made outside in the woods and fields surrounding home. As kids we new every hole in the hedge, the best trees to climb, becks to jump and places to hide. So long as we were home by dusk or when we heard our Dad calling from the back doorstep we were free.
It was a place rich in local names and the history of those who lived there. We had the “Easter Banks” a series of grassy hummocks where we’d roll our hard boiled and painted Easter eggs in the spring.”Kiddy Simpson’s” was a woodland meadow also known as “Cowslip Field” for spring brought waves of yellow cowslips the like of which I’ve never seen since.”Seaton’s Field” belonged to Ernie Seaton and we would play at running past his geese which hissed and nipped always striking as you giggled and stumbled.Ernie was permanently clad in flat cap,great coat and wellies.He spoke in a rich dialect and we’d often have to ask parents what he was on about!
I’ve worked outside all my life as a woodsman,stone waller,farm labourer,ranger,contractor,footpath officer,guide,photographer and more. Still the turn of seasons,wildlife,light and landscape fills me with wonder.For 20 years I’ve been getting to know Holmfirth and the rolling Pennine back bone beside it.I’ve begun to feel much of that childhood belonging return and you can see it here in this photography.