Mother  was  born  in  County  Durham,  her  father  worked  in  the  mines  and  the  family  came  south  in  the  depression  when  mother  was  a  young  girl.  They  settled  in  Watford,  where  my  grandfather  made  a  life  for  the  family.  My  father  worked  as  relief  manager  for  some  retail  shops,  the  Co-­‐op  I  think,  and  met  my  mother  whilst  he  was  working  in  Watford.  They  married  and  came  to  Bedford  on  the  day  of  the  wedding,  it  was  where  my  father’s  family  were  living.  My  parents  arrived  at  Bedford  Midland  Road  Station  on  the  16th  January  1953,  they  lived  for  a  short  while  in  a  bed-­‐sit  in  Kimbolton  Road,  which,  fortuitously,  was  nearly  opposite  the  Maternity  Hospital  at  Bedford  North  Wing.  I  was  a  twin,  and  my  sister  and  I  were  born  prematurely  in  late  September  of  the  same  year;  mother  had  been  diagnosed  with  toxemia,  she  stayed  in  hospital  for  fifteen  days  after  the  birth,  so  was  in  hospitalized  for  over  a  month.  Shortly  afterwards  my  parents  were  offered  a  brand  new  council  house  in  Bamford  Road.  Five  years  and  two  more  children  later  the  family  moved  to  Duchess  Road.  Five  years  later  and  a  further  four  children  later,  mother  was  prescribed  the  birth  control  pill.  After  my  father  died,  mother  sold  the  house  in  Duchess  Road,  which  had  been  purchased  as  part  of  the  ‘right  to  buy’  legislation  in  the  early  eighties,  and  moved  to  Hindburn  Close  where  she  now  lives,  and  a  couple  of  miles  from  the  site  where  my  father’s  remains  lay.  

These   places   are   sites   that   staged   some  of   the  major   episodes   in  mother’s   life.   Of  events  that  are  both  spoken  of  and  remembered,  as  well  as  those  that  are  known  of  but  are  rarely  remarked  on.  These  images  were  meant  to  present  an  opportunity  to  both   the   subject   and   the   photographer   to   reflect   and   remember;   so   an  autobiographical  journey  as  much  as  a  means  to  depict  some  sense  of  remembrance.    

40,  Hindburn  Close  

Bedford  Midland  Road  Station  

Site  of  Bedford  North  Wing  Maternity  Hospital,  Kimbolton  Road  

72,  Kimbolton  Road  

36,  Bamford  Road  

20,  Duchess  Road