An artist who photographed an area of Bradford nearly 40 years ago, as part of an epic project spelling out the word ‘England’ across the country, has returned to capture the same scene on camera. And a flag he left there, marking his visit in 1971, is still attached to the tree where he pinned it.

Simon English was a young artist when he made a remarkable journey around the country – visiting 75 places by trekking, hitch-hiking and public transport – to create his All England sculpture. At each point he pinned a St George’s flag on tree trunks and gateposts, with a note explaining what he was doing. People replied with handwritten letters.

Mr English took black-and-white photographs of landscapes, and of himself, collected plant samples and talked to local residents. Along the way he divided the word ‘England’ into points, marked with flags down the length of the country. The sculpture was 275 miles long and 40 miles wide.

Back then, in 1971, he used map pins, stills and photographic slide film, photocopiers, maps and handwritten correspondence. This summer, armed with digital equipment, he has been returning to all 75 places to see how landscapes, ecologies, communities and industries have changed.

For the project, England Revisited, he is again taking photographs, talking to locals, taking plant samples and placing a flag at each point. He is being tracked live, using GPS mapping technology and an iPhone, for his website, englandrevisited.net The final record of his journey will be turned into a digital slide exhibition, available to download.

He has revisited a rural area south of Thornton. A St George’s flag can be seen pinned to a sycamore tree, nearly four decades after Mr English originally put it there.

He has uploaded current images on to his website, comparing them with photos taken in 1971.

“Boundaries made by the English hedgerow may be dissolved and a field may now be a car park. The advent of Dutch elm disease, the demise of mining, new telecommunication apparatus, crop modification, physical regeneration, climate change, farm diversification and shifting parameters of the urban, semi-urban, semi-rural and the rural have occurred,” he said. “Communities and farms have diversified, people have passed and populations have shifted. Yet, in some places, the vista remains unchanged.”

e-mail: emma.clayton @telegraphandargus.co.uk