This photograph, of townsfolk savouring the past in a Dudley pub at a time when cinema and television had taken over popular culture, appeared with the article 'England’s Hard Centre' in Town magazine, March 1961
Photograph: John Bulmer
Another image used with the article ‘England’s Hard Centre’ – this one on the title page
Photograph: John Bulmer
As the mills closed, many of Nelson's young people moved away, leaving large numbers of middle-aged unemployed people. A woman, still wearing her traditional wooden mill clogs while cleaning a gate post, captures the pride that many older residents still had in the town
Photograph: John Bulmer
This photograph shows unemployed labourer and father of seven William Lowery surrounded by his family. Their weekly household income in that year was less than 30 shillings each (£1.50)
Photograph: John Bulmer
Men return home after collecting coal washed up on the local coastline. After the closure of its steel works in 1961, Hartlepool had the nation’s highest number of unemployed people
Photograph: John Bulmer
Women, such as these in Leeds, attempt to add character and colour to the dreary exteriors of their houses by sandstoning the doorsteps and wax-polishing the window sills. '"She keeps a lovely front" is the accolade for a houseproud woman’ – the Sunday Times magazine, March 1965
Photograph: John Bulmer
Keeping up appearances: northern factory girls, like these mill girls in Elland, are rarely self-conscious about wearing rollers; it helps to keep their hair firmly beneath their scarves and out of reach of the mill machines
Photograph: John Bulmer
Pit ponies at Waldridge colliery at the start of their shift. In 1965 the Sunday Times magazine wrote: ‘The Coal Board, sensitive to criticism from animal lovers, ensures that the ponies are well cared for ... Conditions are so improved that the Pit Pony Protection Society now has little to do but urge the Coal Board to give every pony a surface holiday once a year and hurry its mechanisation to free the ponies completely’
Photograph: John Bulmer
Miners at the end of their shift at Dawdon colliery. This was one of a series of photographs that Bulmer took for the Sunday Times magazine’s special issue on the north (March 1965)
Photograph: John Bulmer
For Bulmer’s last assignment in the north of England, Geo magazine wanted images that showed a new, vibrant Manchester. This series of photographs was not well received at the time, but is regarded today an important social documentary
Photograph: John Bulmer
Another image taken for Geo magazine
Photograph: John Bulmer
This photograph was taken a year after Harold Wilson’s resignation. After serving two terms as prime minister at a time of economic crisis, he had come to be regarded as a champion of the working classes. But his handling of an official strike by the Seamen’s Union, together with his economic measures, changed the opinion of many
Photograph: John Bulmer
This image of a hunched-up, elderly man resting in front of a clinic for sportsmen captures a poignant irony
Photograph: John Bulmer
