Category: Industrial Landscape
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#527 – Old Negative Scans Part 7 – Albion Mills
I’d forgotten that I’d taken a few shots on film in Albion Mill, so it as nice to see them appear on my screen ftom the scanner. The mill was another empty Yorkshire mill of no particular significance, and it was knocked down a year or so after I had a look. A shame –…
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#526 – Old Negative Scans Part 6 – Dunaskin
Dunaskin was a funny one (funny odd, not funny ha-ha). An ironworks that had bee converted to a brickworks that had closed and then reopened as an industrial heritage centre, which then closed and was abandoned. I took these on one of my Nikon F100’s with a half decent 28-105 lens on it which is…
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#523 – Old Negative Scans Part 3 – Ivy Bank Mills
Ivy Bank was another ruinous death trap, and I loved it so much I visited twice! My own personal death wish aside, I found it very photogenic even though I had to watch where I stood – the floor in some areas was distinctly spongy, and I erred on the side of caution and took…
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#521 – Old Negative Scans Part 1 – Cheadle Bleachworks
I’ve recently bought a proper Plustek 8100 negative scanner, which is damn slow as it only does one at a time, but the results especially when doing multiple scans of the same neg (a sort of analogue HDR) are much better than my flatbed. Obviously, like any neg scan or darkroom print without any work,…
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#520 – Hotspur Press Again
A few more of Hotspur Press in Manchester, this time taken with a proper camera! As I was visiting Manchester anyway, I thought I’d park in the multi storey car park behind as it would allow me to get a different perspective on the place. I wanted to capture the contrast between the new and…
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#519 – Manchester – English Steel, Armstrong Whitworth and a railway line to nowhere…..
Looking north to Ashton Old Road and the site of the old North Street Works This is Redby Street in Manchester, a short insignificant street in the Openshaw district. It connects Ashton Old Road and Whitworth Street and is surrounded by wasteland. There doesn’t seem to be that much in Openshaw these days, but at…
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#517 – Slater’s Terrace and Sandygate Mill, 2006
I’ve recently been digging through my archive for forgotten or undiscovered images and I took a look through an album of photographs I took in 2006 around the Weavers Triangle area of Burnley. It was a bright Saturday morning and unfortunately I was shooting into the sun, a fairly elementary error in my planning which…
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#516 – Hotspur Press
Medlock Mill, aka Hotspur Press has been on my radar for some time but has never been a priority and I always forget to take a look when I’m in Manchester. I finally remembered when I was in the area but only had my IPhone and not much time, so it’s another one to add…
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#515 – Cononley Lead Mine 2
A spot of history – the mineral rights to the area were owned by the Duke of Devonshire, and to develop the mine he brought in the famous Cornish mining engineer John Taylor which would doubtless explain the Cornish style design. The engine house is thought to date from about 1840, and housed a beam…
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#514 – Cononley Lead Mine 1
The tin mines of Cornwall, or more specifically the beam engine houses are a unique site around the county. The high walled engine houses and the tall chimneys were some of the first mechanised deep mines in the country and a site unique to the south west. Or so I thought……. I was researching mining…
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#512 – Professional Image Maker Article
It’s been a busy month for me, so this is a little late, but this month I’ve had the privilege of having a 12 page feature in Professional Image Maker magazine, the journal of the SWPP. I think the last time I had my work featured was in Amateur Photographer, not that I’ve transitioned from…
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#511 – Pincroft Dyers
Lancashire 1938? No, 2018. It looks like polluting black smoke emerging from the chimney, but it’s actually just steam, the vignette I’ve applied has had the effect of darkening the vapour. This is Pincroft Dyers is one of the few remains of Lancashire’s once dominant textile industry. I spoke to one of the shift managers…
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#507 – 500 Post Retrospective – Slate
I’ve only visited two slate quarries (Dinorwic and Pen-yr Orsedd) but every time I visit North Wales I am reminded of the physical impact this industry had on the landscape. Although some slate quarrying continues, it is on a much smaller scale than in days gone by, largely due to the building industry’s preference for…
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#505 – 500 Post Retrospective No.5 – The urban and industrial landscape
Monckton Coke Works – a relic from a bygone age, this place has since closed and is now demolished. Lune Mills Lancaster – a vast site on the banks of the RIver Lune in Lancaster. It was once home to a giant linoleum works and had it’s own power station (which still exists), and although…
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#504 – 500 Post Retrospective No.4 – Iron and Steel
Britain once had a huge iron and steel industry, but there’s not much left now. The closure of the Redcar works in 2015 meant that there were only two major steelworks left in the UK, along with a number of rolling mills and electric arc furnaces. There had been much retraction of the industry in…
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#503 – 500 Post Retrospective No.3 – Mills
The mills of the north of England have held a lifelong fascination for me. Growing up in Bolton in the 1980’s meant that the towns industrial heyday had long passed and while there were still plenty of mills around, hardly any were still spinning cotton and with every passing year, more and more mills were…
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#495 – Cammell Laird 2
Is there anything more symbolic of shipbuilding than the cranes? In years past, these giant structures towered over the yards and the surrounding landscape like the chimneys of the textile towns. For miles, these huge cranes lined the banks of the Tyne and the Clyde, helping construct thousands of ships. While the Mersey is an…
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#494 – Cammell Lairds 1
As I stood on the Birkenhead Priory tower overlooking the yard the 10.55 hooter, followed by one at 11, I presume signifying a tea break. I remember my own time spent working in a huge factory where our day was dictated by the rhythm of the hooter. 7.30 hooter – pick up the tools and…
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#493 – Teesside Industrial Tourism 4 – Brent Delta Oil in Monochrome
A few snaps of Brent Delta in monochrome.
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#491 – Teesside Industrial Tourism 2 – Redcar
I’d been to Redcar a few years ago when the steelworks was active. My initial visit was a few weeks before the site shut in 2010, and again in 2013 after it had been bought and reopened by a Thai conglomerate. This reopening didn’t last long and the site was shut for good in 2015,…
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#492 – Teesside Industrial Tourism 3 – Brent Delta Oil Rig Demolition
Not being a native of the area, I wasn’t aware that the Brent Delta oil rig had been brought to Able UK’s port at Seaton Carew near Hartlepool to be scrapped. The yard and the firm hit the news a few years ago when it brought a number of old American reserve fleet ships to…
Mechanical Landscapes 