If you’ve seen my recent blog posts on the Rossendale mills, then this will look quite reminiscent of some of those. I’m not sure why I’ve developed a fascination for northlight windows, it’s probably just a passing whimsy, but in the right light they can look great. Unfortunately the winter sun was well off to…
Category: Urban Exploration
#435 – Brierfield Mill Part 2 – Views Through a Window
Windows. This composition is something I’ve used successfully over the years and is one I still employ. I’m sure if a psychoanalyst saw them all he would interpret them as the sign of a troubled mind, but it’s just a composition I happen to like. I wanted to find ways of including the clock tower…
#434 – Brierfield Mill Part 1 – An Introduction
The M65 motorway was opened in sections between 1981 and 1988, and formed a link between Blackburn and Burnley, two old mill towns in terminal decline. So much so that it was nicknamed ‘the motorway from nowhere, to nowhere’. Maybe the planners simply had their map upside down, but the rest of the motorway i.e….
#433 – The last days of Sunnyside Mills, Bolton
I happened on this article last week and decided to take some time to get a few photographs of this landmark mill tower before it disappeared. I got there just in time. Demolition contractors were on site and much of the rest of the mill had already gone. It’s a difficult place to photograph as…
#431 – Rossendale Mills – Albert Mill, Haslingden 4
A slightly different perspective to the first one I posted in this series, but all 4 were taken within 20 feet of each other on the same stretch of pavement, albeit using either a 14mm, 18mm or a 35mm lens on my Fuji XT-10. It perhaps needs a little more ‘breathing space’ on either side…
#430 – Rossendale Mills – Albert Mill, Haslingden 3
Saw tooth north light roofs are ubiquitous on textile mill weaving sheds, and can sometimes be found atop the multi storey spinning mills as well. It’s unusual to be able to look down on one from the ground though, but the local topography was on my side here. I’ve never really had the chance to…
#428 – Rossendale Mills – Albert Mill, Haslingden 2
Haslingden. Someone once told me that there are only two types of weather in the East Lancashire town of Darwen – rain, or about to rain. In fairness, this is true of most of the East Lancashire mill towns, stuck in their little valleys or clung to hillsides. From a monochrome photographers perspective this is…
#421 – Rhydymwyn Valley Works, aka The Mustard Gas Factory, Part 2
This pencil graffiti has lasted surprisingly well considering it is supposedly 70 years old…… Being a regular visitor to both derelict and active industrial sites, I’ve walked across all kinds of surfaces, but never a rubberised one. The site roads on the southern section were coated with a rubber like asphalt designed to stop…
#415 – Leigh Spinners Mill Engine – The Giant Awakes………..
After years of service, the giant was no longer needed. Obsolete and old, it was given a spot of oil and the blankets were put on. The giant went to sleep, resting, and maybe mourning the loss of it’s twin next door, cut up by the scrapman after a boiler explosion ripped apart it’s lungs….
#403 – Pen-yr-Orsedd Quarry Part 3
Winding engine (I think) in one of the sheds. Just a few more random ones from the visit. It was good to have some expert accompaniment on the visit, so thanks again to Iain Robinson for spending a good part of the day with me as he’s very knowledgeable on the local quarry industry and…
Mechanical Landscapes 