A Northern Eye 6 - Thomond on Thursday with his choice of Guardian pictures from England's better half

Snow at the hamlet of Sparrowpit where high roads cross at the Wanted Inn in the Derbyshire Peak District
Photograph: guardian.co.uk

On the hillside near Sparrowpit. Feeding the snowbound sheep.
Photograph: guardian.co.uk

The harder way of getting there. Another view at Sparrowpit.
Photograph: guardian.co.uk

Singing carols at pubs round Sheffield is a thriving tradition, stemming from Victorian days when vicars imposed a limited range and congregations decamped to the inn instead. There are more than ten different tunes to 'While Shpherds watched...' Photograph: guardian.co.uk

Playing the amusements in Scarborough - every bit as famous for fresh air and fun as its mighty rival across the Pennines. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian/guardian.co.uk

A different side of Scarborough; an inshore fishing smack at the harbour entrance Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian/guardian.co.uk

Jim McMahon, Labour's youthful council leader in Oldham - and guest blogger on the Northerner. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian/guardian.co.uk

Yes, really. Read all about it here. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian/guardian.co.uk

The year's most popular winners of a Sony Gold radio award: Betty Smith (left) and Beryl Renwick in the studio at BBC Radio Humberside Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian/guardian.co.uk

Manchester City fans Andrew Miller (left) and Darren Statham buying replica shirts on the eve of their team's first Championship title since 1968 Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian/guardian.co.uk

Rehearsals at the West Yorkshire Playhouse for Loserville which wittily imagined the schooldays of the likes of Apple's Steve Jobs. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian/guardian.co.uk

Hebden Bridge - plunged Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath into Pennine gloom but has since revived as a heady mixture of tourism and mildly alternative culture. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian/guardian.co.uk

The Yorkshire Soap Company in Hebden Bridge was flooded out this year, moving upstairs to continue business. But it laid on an impressive celebration of the Queen's diamond jubilee Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian/guardian.co.uk

Professor Tom Kirkwood, associate dean for ageing at Newcastle University, who has studied more than 1000 people over 85-years-old and demolished many preconceptions about old age. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian/guardian.co.uk

Rowena Young from the social enterprise Urbivore gives local residents at Bentilee, Stoke on Trent, a hand to turn a disused golf course into an urban planted space, giving new work across the generations in an area which has suffered high unemployment for decades. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian/guardian.co.uk

Rosemary with other members of the Urbivore project. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian/guardian.co.uk

NEWCASTLE 4th March 2012 - AV Festival 12: As slow as possible. The art installation 'Slow motion car crash' by Jonathan Schipper at Newcastle-upon-Tyne's AV Festival 'As slow as possible'. Staged in a disused shop unit in the city cenre, it saw an old Volkswagen Golf, mounted on a hydraulic plate, inch forward to crash into the wall over the period of the festival. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian/guardian.co.uk