Mechanical Landscapes

  • #451 – Rossendale Mills – The Lancashire Sock Company

    #451 – Rossendale Mills – The Lancashire Sock Company

    I was comforted to discover that a company called The Lancashire Sock Manufacturing Company exist in a mill in Bacup. I’m not saying this in a patronising, sneering kind of way – I’m always pleased to discover traditional, long established manufacturing companies in old mills. There’s also the no-nonsense ‘does what it says on the tin’…

  • #450 – Samsung Galaxy S7 Shoot – Crossness Pumping Station 3

    #450 – Samsung Galaxy S7 Shoot – Crossness Pumping Station 3

    And so down into the basement…. Well actually it’s not really a basement as such. Four triple expansion compound steam engines were installed into a new building adjacent to the original one in 1897 to provide additional pumping capacity, but these were removed not long after in 1913 and replaced with Crossley diesels.The diesel engines…

  • #449 – Samsung Galaxy S7 Shoot – Crossness Pumping Station 2

    Beam engines – f***ing big beam engines at that. Crossness is home to four huge beam engines – Victoria, Prince Consort, Albert Edward (the Prince of Wales) and Alexandra (the Princess of Wales). Prince Consort has been restored to full working condition and Prince Consort is now being worked on. At the other end of the…

  • #448 – Samsung Galaxy S7 Shoot – Crossness Pumping Station 1

    Crossness Pumping Station is somewhere I’ve wanted to go for years. The magnificent Kew may have a more central location, glossy website and some giant engines, but Crossness is a marvelous mixture of wrought iron, rust and symmetry that is incomparable. I was really blown away by the place. I trained as an engineer, I’m…

  • #447 – Samsung Galaxy S7 Shoot – Caroline Gardens Chapel, London

    So this was an interesting choice for the second location on our Samsung photoshoot. Caroline Gardens Chapel in Peckham is a small chapel that is rented out for ‘shabby chic’ weddings and other events. It’s not derelict as such, just maintained in a state of (aesthetic) decay to give the right ambience, and the pictures on the…

  • #446 – Samsung Galaxy S7 Shoot – St.Clements Asylum, London

    #446 – Samsung Galaxy S7 Shoot – St.Clements Asylum, London

    First location in London was the old St.Clements hospital on Bow Lane. Built in 1848-49 as a workhouse, it later became a psychiatric unit before closing in 2005. The site is now undergoing conversion by Linden Homes, and work had started to strip the place unfortunately. So I did what I always do in completely empty…

  • #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.…

  • #444 – Samsung Galaxy S7 Shoot – London Road Fire Station, Manchester – 2

    #444 – Samsung Galaxy S7 Shoot – London Road Fire Station, Manchester – 2

    London road fire station is an amazing site, arguably well ahead of its time in that it was a multi purpose building featuring a fire station (plus accommodation), ambulance station, bank and a coroners court in one large triangular site in the heart of the city. It served as a fire station until the 1970’s…

  • #443 – Samsung Galaxy S7 Shoot – London Road Fire Station, Manchester – 1

    #443 – Samsung Galaxy S7 Shoot – London Road Fire Station, Manchester – 1

    Opportunities pass, they don’t pause, someone wise once told me. It was one of those passé sound bites that stuck with me and would spring to mind whenever an opportunity appeared, or more regularly when I failed to take one and regretted it after. So when out of the blue I was contacted by a…

  • #442 – Grafters Exhibition – Oldham Panorama

    #442 – Grafters Exhibition – Oldham Panorama

    If you’re a regular reader of this blog or my Planes, Boats, Trains blog, you’ll know my fascination for the Library of Congress archive, and especially the gigantic panoramas of industrial, urban and dockyard scenes. So you imagine my delight when I saw this gigantic panorama taken in Oldham in 1876 at the Grafters exhibition…

  • #441 – Brierfield Mill Part 8 – The Shopfloor

    #441 – Brierfield Mill Part 8 – The Shopfloor

    I’ve saved the shopfloor to last as, well, there wasn’t much of interest to shoot. 380000 square feet of basically f*** all and pigeons. The mill had been methodically stripped of everything. But as a photographer, that’s fine as it forces me to look beyond the empty space and try harder to see things. It…

  • #440 – Brierfield Mill Part 7 – Doors and (more) Windows

    #440 – Brierfield Mill Part 7 – Doors and (more) Windows

    Like all big mills, Brierfield has lots of windows. Hundreds of them. So here’s a few more, plus a door. Weaving shed floor. This was a more modern portal framed building roof built onto an older weaving shed, giving the place substantially more volume. This wall runs alongside the Leeds Liverpool Canal affording some lovely…

  • #439 – Brierfield Mill Part 6 – The Clock Tower

    #439 – Brierfield Mill Part 6 – The Clock Tower

    The clock tower is an interesting focal point from a photographic perspective. However on closer inspection it doesn’t look quite right. Site Supervisor Paul worked in the mill for a large part of his career and is of the opinion that not only is it a somewhat later addition, but that the design was actually…

  • #438 – Brierfield Mill Part 5 – The Clock

    #438 – Brierfield Mill Part 5 – The Clock

    One of the most interesting (and inaccessible) remains in the mill is the clock. It is electro-mechanical (electricity winds it up, effectively) and a lovely thing to behold. And to top things it off, it rings a large bell, which was inaccessible to a large fellow like myself. Carved into the wood supports for the…

  • #437 – Brierfield Mill Part 4 – Reception

    #437 – Brierfield Mill Part 4 – Reception

    The timber lined reception had been untouched by the demolition crew that had cleared out the admin building (the entire site is listed so no buildings are getting pulled down). It’s symmetry appealed to me so I made the most of it. Unfortunately all the offices had been stripped and the internal walls reduced to…

  • Shadows of the North Book – last few copies / free PDF sample

    Shadows of the North Book – last few copies / free PDF sample

    Having sold quite a few of my books recently at my talks and online, I’m down to the last few copies of my self-published book, and I’m considering my options for a reprint. The safe option is to go back to Blurb, but good though they are, they are ridiculously expensive and I only ever buy…

  • My recent Urbex shoot for O2 / Samsung

    More to come soon, but I’ve recently been commissioned to take some urbex style photos using the awesome new Samsung Galaxy S7. Here’s the press release from O2: http://news.o2.co.uk/?press-release=urban-explorer-snaps-eerie-pics-samsung-galaxy-s7-o2 And a story in the Manchester Evening News: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/london-road-fire-station-urban-11055107 Finally a gallery of photos on my website of London Road Fire Station: http://www.theviewfromthenorth.org/london-road-fire-station-samsung More to come………

  • #436 – Brierfield Mill Part 3 – North Light Windows

    #436 – Brierfield Mill Part 3 – North Light Windows

    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…

  • #435 – Brierfield Mill Part 2 – Views Through a Window

    #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

    #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

    #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…