Category: Black and White
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#650 – Imperial Mill Blackburn 2
As I moved out of Blackburn in 2004 and stopped working there in 2006, I rarely go back unless I have to. It’s a town I have mixed memories of, and as I wasn’t born there, and most of my friends from there have also moved elsewhere, so there’s little to take me back. Nonetheless,…
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#649 – Imperial Mill Blackburn
I lived in Blackburn for a few years in the late 90’s / early 2000’s and used to work near this place, Imperial Mill. I took some photographs of it that I don’t think I’ve ever put on here but you might have seen the one above on my website if you’ve ever visited it.…
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#648 – Vine Mill, Oswaldtwistle
I was in ‘Ossy’ on the way back from somewhere else, so I thought I’d swing by this place as it’s been in my list for a while. It’s not the most visually interesting mill, so I took a couple of record photographs and then went down a lane at the side to see if…
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#647 – Stonebridge Mill, Oswaldtwistle 2
In days gone by, a mill at the end of the street was a common site in Lancashire and Yorkshire, with the terraced housing being built for the mill workers. Let’s not romanticise it though – these places were noisy and had smoke billowing out of the chimney 24/7 so I can’t imagine they were…
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#646 – Stonebridge Mill, Oswaldtwistle
Oswaldtwistle is one of those northern towns like Slaithwaite (Slawit) and Barnoldswick (Barlick) that is not pronounced as it is spelt. Locally it is pronounced ‘Ozuldtwissle’ or just ‘Ozzy’ if you’re really local. Actually, it’s not really a town, it’s more a suburb of Accrington (which is pronounced as it is spelt, although generally abbreviated…
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#645 South Wales Road Trip Part 13 – Big Pit
Big Pit was my last port of call as it was the most easterly pit and therefore – technically – on the way home. It’s the home of the Welsh Mining Museum so like all museums is free to enter, but they do charge £5 to park so regard that as an entry fee of…
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#644 – South Wales Road Trip Part 12 – Lewis Merthyr
Unlike Cefn Coed, the colliery museum at Lewis Merthyr remains open. Mine was a flying visit and I didn’t have time for the guided tour round the buildings as I wanted to look at a photographic exhibition that was being held there as well so I had to balance the time I had between making…
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#643 – South Wales Road Trip Part 11 – Great Western Colliery
This was a brief stop. The site wasn’t open and a small sign on the gate said it open Sundays 2-4 so I was 24 hours too early and I planned to be on the way home when it was open, so I just had a look from the pavement. And that’s quite easy to…
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#642 – South Wales Road Trip Part 10 – Tower Colliery
I’m not sure if you’re allowed in without a booking for one of the rides, but I thought I’d chance my arm – you don’t get if you don’t ask. The lovely girl on the desk was slightly perplexed by my request but agreed that I could go in as long as I stayed in…
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#641 – South Wales Road Trip Part 9 – Cefn Coed Colliery
The primary reason for my Wales trip was to photograph the remaining mines for my typology and I have opted to photograph them all from the same side on perspective. This is easier said than done, and not all of the remaining headgears can be photographed side on, but I was going to do my…
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#640 – South Wales Road Trip Part 8 Cefn Coed Colliery
Cefn Coed was on my list of places to see on my original, cancelled trip in 2021 but at that time one or both of the headgears were being rebuilt and in pieces. So I suppose one of the benefits of postponing was the ability to see both in a fully restored condition, and they…
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#637 – South Wales Road Trip Part 5 – Port Talbot
A few years ago I’d seen a photo on Flickr taken from a street in the Margam district, that depicted a blast furnace towering over the terraced housing. This was exactly the kind of scene which fascinates me and I resolved to make my own version of the photo. Unfortunately, I hadn’t realised that there…
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#636 – South Wales Road Trip Part 4 – Penallta
The aerial photograph from 1930 of the site shows what I think is a coal washery along with extensive railway sidings to the east of the site. These are long gone and housing has recently been built on the site, it as this is at a lower elevation than the colliery, the headframe on the…
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#635 – South Wales Road Trip Part 3 – Penallta
I’d seen a few photographs online of the upcast headgear, viewed through the downcast headgear structure. My plan was to try and hold my camera over the fence and photograph this through the legs to see if I could get a usable photograph for the typology but I wasn’t expecting much. As I ended up…
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#634 – South Wales Road Trip Part 2 – Penallta
Pennalta Colliery was my first planned port of call on my South Wales road trip. My plan was primarily to get a photo for my headgear typology and then get some from the adjacent housing estate that has recently been built on part of the site. I’d done some research on the internet to get…
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#633 – South Wales Road Trip Part 1 – Hafodyrynys
This bizarre contrivance is a slime thickener, which was part of a coal washery, the only remaining part of the former Hafodyrynys colliery. A colliery had been in operation at Hafodyrynys in the 1870’s, and another opened in 1914 which operated until the 1950’s. The old shafts were closed and three drifts were sunk, with…
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#632 – North Sea Canal Industrial Landscape 3 – Seaway Alfa Lift
This gigantic crane is mounted – somehow – onto a ship, the Seaway Alfa Lift operated by Seaway7 and can lift 3000 tonnes. The boom is normally lowered and stowed flat over the bow but it was undergoing some kind of maintenance while in port. I tried to capture it juxtapositioned with the gantry crane in…
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#631 – North Sea Canal industrial landscape 2 – industrial minimalism
As we cruised up the canal, I observed the archetypal Dutch countryside, which was for short spell largely agrarian until the outskirts of Amsterdam at which point the landscape changed dramatically to one of docklands and industries. I decided to keep myself amused by photographing small fragments of it. I took just one lens with…
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#630 – North Sea Canal industrial landscape 1 – IJmuiden Steelworks
In my last post, I talked about a photo taken from a ship leaving Southampton, and these are taken the following day as we approached the coast of Holland. The smoke from the chimneys of IJmuiden Steelworks was visible some miles out to see, and as we got closer the unmistakeable cluttered skyline of the…
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#629 – Marchwood Port
This photograph is of a scene that I saw and photographed knowing that there was potential in it, but I’m not sure if I’ve managed to bring that potential out yet. Marchwood is a military port, but unlike Plymouth and Portsmouth it is not a dockyard. Rather its purpose is more to load cargo ships…
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#628 – Talbot Mill, Manchester 2
As I often do, I’ve inverted this reflection because, well it just works better this way in my opinion. I like the way the texture of the fluffy clouds gives way to the lumpy asphalt. This was taken on my phone, the grittiness of the puddle and the textures elsewhere make up for some of…
Mechanical Landscapes 