#402 – Pen-yr-Orsedd Quarry Part 2

While I’m not a frequent visitor to North Wales, I have visited at least annually over the past ten years, and had experienced only one sunny day in that time. So I was pleasantly surprised to experience the area when it wasn’t smothered in cloud, fog and rain. Photographically, this represented a departure from me for two…

#401 – Pen-yr-Orsedd Quarry Part 1

I’ve no particular association with the area or the industry, but I have an odd fascination with the slate industry and the way it has shaped the landscape of North Wales. In most industries, once a plant has worn out or is rendered obsolete for whatever reason, the place is either raised to the ground and something…

#394 – Photographs from Helmshore Exhibition!

Finally – a few snaps from my Shadows of the North exhibition at Helmshore Mills Textile Museum. It’s not the biggest exhibition you’ll see, and on reflection it would have been nice to have had an extra display board to space things out a bit but they only own two. I’m working on bringing it…

#389 – Library of Congress Images – Ironton Blast Furnace

This photo is titled ‘Columbia Steel Company at Ironton, Utah a locomotive outside the blast furnace’. The Utahrails website gives an early history of the steelworks, but doesn’t explain its relatively short life of only 40 years. Despite the lack of established heavy industry in the area, Utah was home to deposits of iron ore,…

#387 – Industry by Night

I thought I’d posted these before, but it appears not. These were taken in 2010 on a cold January evening in Redcar on Teeside. The Tata steelworks was due to shutdown within the next few weeks and it looked like the end of steelmaking in the North East was imminent. The mill was shut down…

#386 – Mill Lodge and Chimney

There’s not many factory chimneys left in Lancashire, and very few of those are actually still used. This one at Pincroft Dyers in Adlington near Chorley is one of the few exceptions, and is one of the few remaining printers and dyers left in the area. Other than the cladding on the buildings, this scene…

#383 – Fiddlers Ferry Steam on the landscape

Driving back from Bolton Steam Museum the other day, I took the marginally more scenic route via Horwich. Chorley Old Road climbs quite high and is always a good spot for some pleasant views, but I was quite surprised to see the steam rising from Fiddlers Ferry Power Station near Warrington on the horizon. The…