Climbing the incline is hard work. I’d put the angle somewhere between 30 and 45 degrees, and although there are some crumbling stone steps in sections, the rest of it is a combination of grass and loose slate. The gradient is relentless, and unless you are a Nepalese Sherpa or are seriously fit, it’s probably…
Category: Black and White
#231 – Huncoat Power Station
East Lancashire is a pretty grim place, and I’m saying that from the bitter experience as I used to live and work there. Most of the large private employers have moved out, and with the current swingeing public sector cuts, it ain’t getting any better. If it wasn’t for the aerospace sector, there would be very…
#230 – Grove Rake Fluorite Mine
Britain is a pretty compact nation, and you’re ultimately never that far from civilisation. Compared to say America, where you can drive all day and still not get across a state, in Britain, you’d run out of road before running out of day. So to go somewhere by road that is truly in the ‘middle…
#229 – Robert Fletchers Paper Mill – Part 3
The ‘Top Mill’ that we explored is in the background. Here, Azubi is enquiring if it would be at all possible to come in and have a look round. The light was fading fast now, and we made our way down the footpath down the side of the site, to the driveway back to the…
#228 – Robert Fletchers Paper Mill – Part 2
Employees Handbook para (d) Long Service Benefits It is hoped that your association with the Company will be a long one, and that you will qualify for a Long Service Award. After 42 years’ service, men receive a gold watch, and after 37 years’ service, women receive a silver teapot. Big, bad Beloit from Bolton. The room…
#227 – Robert Fletchers Paper Mill – Part 1
Employees Handbook para (b) Employees’ Transport For the convenience of shift workers arriving and leaving at 6.00a.m., 20.. p..m and 10.00 p.pm. daily, a bus service is operated between Oldham and the Mill, via Lees and Mossley. Employees wishing to avail themselves of this service may obtain from the Time Office particulars of fares charged and the necessary…
#219 – Derelict Mills – Part 7 Ivy Bank Mill
The diversity of places that I’ve explored has ranged from completely intact places like Pyestock and Fletchers Paper Mill, to stripped out hulks such as Old Lane Mill. But this would suggest that some kind of spectrum of dereliction exists with fully intact at one end and empty shells at the other, when in actual…
#218 – Derelict Mills – Part 6 – Westwood Mill
Sometimes I feel compelled to go and visit places, even if I’m not in the right frame of mind. I’d had my eye on this place for a while, and I needed to visit somewhere to photograph for a nightschool project. Reports on the internet showed it to be pretty stripped out, but with one…
#208 – Roy Chadwicks* Finest Hour
Back in the 1980’s I was a teenage air cadet and mildly obsessed with anything aeronautical, and particularly obsessed with anything Vulcan related. On my bedroom wall was a large poster of XH558, the last surviving flying Vulcan, which was at the time the RAF’s Vulcan Display Team The highlight of my visits to the…
#169 – Attack Of The Giant Egg Cups – Thorpe Marsh Part 3
Ever take a photo that is deeply satisfying? This one does it for me. OK, there was a bit of post processing involved and cropping involved to get the image as I wanted it, but the simplicity of this is something I really enjoy. No fancy compositions, no foreground interest, just three towers from a few…