Mechanical Landscapes

  • #491 – Teesside Industrial Tourism 2 – Redcar

    #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,…

  • #492 – Teesside Industrial Tourism 3 – Brent Delta Oil Rig Demolition

    #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…

  • #490 – Teesside Industrial Tourism 1 – Skinningrove

    The Cleveland area in the northeast of England was once home to many iron and steelworks. The area was rich in iron ore and its many mines fed the furnaces of the area. Skinningrove had a large ironstone mine and an ironworks was built on the cliffs above the village in 1873/1874 A jetty was…

  • #489 Forton Lake Wrecks

    #489 Forton Lake Wrecks

    I was down in Fareham, near Portsmouth, visiting a factory as part of my day job and had a few hours to kill. A hazy memory of some sort of abandoned wrecks came to mind and a few minutes internet searching led me to Gosport, about 20 minutes away from my hotel. Although I had…

  • #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…

  • #485 – Rockets, Missiles and a corner of Cumbria

    It was something of a surprise to me to learn that in the 1960’s, Britain had an advanced rocket program that was looking to launch rockets into space. Though my interest in aviation, I knew of the Blue Streak ballistic missile program which was cancelled but didn’t make the obvious leap to think of it’s…

  • #484 – Beehive Mills, Bolton

    OK it’s a visual cliche, but it’s a scene that will soon vanish. Beehive Mills, a grade 2 listed twin mill in Bolton will soon be demolished for more housing, so I thought it prudent to go and have a look while I still could. The first mill was built in 1895 with the second…

  • #483 – Millscapes Exhibition Preparation 4

    One thing I’ve only really touched on in my previous posts is image selection. I mentioned in my first post that I had a much smaller body of work to choose from than previous exhibitions due to the exhibition covering just two mills. And although Bailey Mill remains one of my favourite explores from a…

  • #482 – Millscapes Exhibition Preparation 3

    OK, so it’s been a while since I posted on this, but I’ve been very busy with other stuff, so let’s pick it up again. Layout I’d previously visited the museum and measured the gallery space. What I always do when laying out any portfolio, book or exhibition, is to get a load of small…

  • #481 – A new look to the blog!

    After four years of the last template, I’ve decided to have a refresh of the site as WordPress have some interesting new ones available – I hope you like it! It’s less noticeable on mobile devices, you very much need to see it on a desktop or laptop to appreciate it. I’ve also taken the…

  • #480 – Millscapes Exhibition Preparation 2

    Due to the quantity of mounts involved, I decided that cutting my own would take too long (it’s a laborious task) , so I decided to buy pre-cut mounts. I meant to order single mounts but as I was in a hurry to order them (during a 5 minute lunch break between meetings….) I ended…

  • #479 – Millscapes exhibition preparation

    A few of the prints I’ll be mounting and framing this weekend and over the next week….. So there’s a couple of weeks to go before I set up the Millscapes exhibition at Saddleworth Museum, and I thought I’d do a post on the preparation. Unlike my previous exhibitions, this one contains photographs from just…

  • #478 – My next exhibition – ‘Millscapes’ at Saddleworth Museum and Art Gallery

    I’m excited to announce that my next exhibition is at the lovely Saddleworth Museum and Art Gallery, opening on the 11th November and running until the 4th December. Unlike my previous exhibitions, this exhibition will be a display of the photographs I took of two Saddleworth mills – Bailey and Wellington – in 2007. Wellington…

  • #477 – Reduced price copies of The View From The North 2007-2017 book!

    OK, so I’ve bought a few copies of The View From The North 2007-2017 book for sale at my talks, so it makes sense to try and peddle it here as well. If you buy it direct from Blurb it’ll cost £26 (plus 7 quid P&P) but I bought these during a discount offer so…

  • #476 – Telamon (Temple Hall) Shipwreck, Lanzarote 3

    #476 – Telamon (Temple Hall) Shipwreck, Lanzarote 3

    Last look at the Telamon, with a few in monochrome. I’d taken my ND filters to try some long exposures, as the weather forecast was for cloud. However it was a trifle windy and by the time I got there, the clouds had cleared but the wind hadn’t dropped, which didn’t make for ideal conditions…

  • #475 – Telamon (Temple Hall) Shipwreck, Lanzarote 2

    There are numerous reports on the internet  of plans to scrap the remains of the ship, with some quite definitive sounding plans from 2014 being posted: http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/showthread.php?t=90762#/topics/90762?page=1 There are implications on more recent webpages that the end is nigh, but as of my visit at the end of May 2017, no progress had been made.…

  • #474 – Telamon (Temple Hall) Shipwreck, Lanzarote 1

    #474 – Telamon (Temple Hall) Shipwreck, Lanzarote 1

    Having recently photographed Merger at Glasson Dock, I was pleased to discover that just down the road from our holiday hotel in Lanzarote was the wreck of the Telamon. Given that there’s a limit to how much sitting by the pool I can tolerate (about an hour), I left my wife and daughter for an…

  • #473 – Derelict Ship at Glasson Dock 2

    #473 – Derelict Ship at Glasson Dock 2

    In the past, Glasson Dock has been used for ship breaking (and building) occasionally, so it may well be that Merger meets her end where she now lies. I visited primarily to try out an ND filter, but found that the tide didn’t rise high enough for me to get the pictures I’d envisioned, but…

  • #472 – Derelict Ship at Glasson Dock 1

    #472 – Derelict Ship at Glasson Dock 1

    I know nothing of this little ship, other than it used to be a dredger based at Glasson Dock. Named ‘Merger’,  internet pictures show it with an excavator positioned near the bow, presumably for clearing the channels of the Lune for the coastal shipping that uses this small Lancashire Port. It looks like its service…