Mechanical Landscapes

Category: Urban Exploration

  • #524 – Old Negative Scans Part 4 – Royd Edge Mills

    #524 – Old Negative Scans Part 4 – Royd Edge Mills

    Another day, another ruined Yorkshire mill. This was Royd Edge Mill in Meltham, previously home to Brook Dyers, and it had been closed for 8 years when I visited in 2007. Needless to say, it had been heavily vandalised and was pretty stripped out but I got a few good photographs from my digital camera…

  • #523 – Old Negative Scans Part 3 – Ivy Bank Mills

    #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…

  • #522 – Old Negative Scans Part 2 – Grove Rake

    #522 – Old Negative Scans Part 2 – Grove Rake

    I’ve covered Grove Rake several times on this blog as it was an interesting site and I made some interesting images. I’ve been twice – 2008 and 2015 – and on the first occasion I took a film camera as well as my digital SLR to record some scenes. It’s a bleak location on the…

  • #521 – Old Negative Scans Part 1 – Cheadle Bleachworks

    #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,…

  • #512 – Professional Image Maker Article

    #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…

  • #507 – 500 Post Retrospective – Slate

    #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…

  • #504 – 500 Post Retrospective No.4 – Iron and Steel

    #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…

  • #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…

  • #502 – 500 Post Retrospective No.3 – Mining

    #502 – 500 Post Retrospective No.3 – Mining

    Grove Rake (2007 and 2016) – another of those rare places I visited twice. The place had been abandoned for several years before my first visit and was reasonably intact. I visited again in 2016 after the majority of the site had been cleared and the headgear was in danger of demolition. In the end…

  • #501 – 500 Post Retrospective No.2 – More Urbex

    #501 – 500 Post Retrospective No.2 – More Urbex

    Urbex has always been a means to an end, rather than an end in itself for me. My interest is in the industrial landscape which is why the overwhelming majority of the places I’ve seen have been industrial with the odd non-industrial place thrown in because the opportunity presented itself. I make no apologies for…

  • #500 – 500 Post Retrospective No.1 – Urbex

    Well it’s taken 11 years, but I’ve finally reached number 500! I’m conscious that I don’t post as often as I used to, primarily because I’m not as prolific a photographer as I used to be which means I’ve less to post. In fairness, my life has changed over the past 11 years (I’ve married,…

  • #498 – North Truro Air Force Station

    #498 – North Truro Air Force Station

    Normally my holiday photographs are restricted to family snaps and the places we go, however, I always keep my eye out to see if there’s anything worth making a detour for, for example, last year I visited the Telamon when in Lanzarote and I visited the PS Ryde in the Isle of Wight a few years back…

  • #488 – Manchester Mayfield Station 3

    #488 – Manchester Mayfield Station 3

    And so to the last few from Mayfield. Running the full length of the station and its platforms is a vast undercroft. Many old Victorian stations have these vast underground areas, some of which are accessible and in use some aren’t. For example, the area under Manchester Central – the former Manchester Central station –…

  • #487 – Manchester Mayfield Station 2

    #487 – Manchester Mayfield Station 2

    After closure, the site remained in Railway ownership and has been used as a location for numerous TV series. In 2005 it was hit by a fire, and in 2013 the majority of the huge roof structure was removed due to it being unsafe. A small section of framework was kept in place, probably to…

  • #486 – Manchester Mayfield Station 1

    #486 – Manchester Mayfield Station 1

    Manchester Mayfield Railway Station (NOT ‘train station’ please, we’re not in America), is the largest derelict space in Manchester, a remarkable feat given that it’s been abandoned for over 30 years. It’s even more remarkable when you consider the extraordinary amount of development that has happened in Manchester since the infamous bomb in 1996. Mind…

  • #471 – The View From The North 10 Year Retrospective – Book Now Available

    #471 – The View From The North 10 Year Retrospective – Book Now Available

    In 2007, I decided to create a website. I can’t remember why, but it must have seemed like a good idea at the time. I’ve never looked back. To celebrate the first ten years, I’ve pulled together a book of some of my favourite images. Truth be told, I’d have liked to include a lot…

  • #466 – Return to Grove Rake 1

    #466 – Return to Grove Rake 1

    I rarely return to places I’ve explored, primarily because they tend to be demolished, regenerated or burnt down in the time that follows my visit. I made an exception this week to revisit Grove Rake Mine on the windswept wastes of County Durham, a place I previously explored in November 2008. The place was as…

  • #462 – Mechanical Landscapes Website Relaunch

    So after two years of wrestling with my Zenfolio hosted http://www.mechanicallandscapes.com, I’ve ditched it and moved to Squarespace. While I can’t fault Zenfolio’s customisation options, it drove me round the twist sometimes, and despite doing everything recommended on the SEO front, traffic was next to nothing. So I’ve cut my losses and built a much simpler site…

  • #455 – Vernon Carus Revisited

    #455 – Vernon Carus Revisited

    I visited Vernon Carus’ old Penwortham Mills site back in 2007, not long after the site had closed and work transferred to a new factory round the corner from my house in Chorley. At the time, there was a full time security guard on site who kindly let me wander round for a couple of…

  • #453 – Colne Mills

    North Valley Road through Colne used to be lined with several sister mills to the Smith & Nephew Brierfield Mills, but all have been demolished and replaced with shiny new supermarkets and car dealerships which gives a veneer of modernity to impress people passing through. But away from this facade is another typical East Lancashire…

  • #445 – Samsung Galaxy S7 Shoot – London Road Fire Station, Manchester – 3

    #445 – Samsung Galaxy S7 Shoot – London Road Fire Station, Manchester – 3

    Final selection from London Road. Not much else to say really that I haven’t already said. A word or two about the phone – yes, I was being paid to shoot these photographs, but that aside, I was very impressed. The HDR mode was immensely useful in these high contrast conditions, and the screen was fabulous.…