Mechanical Landscapes

Tag: Lancashire

  • #330 – Accrington Conservative Club

    It’s been a sad end to the year with the family in mourning for my remarkable grandfather who left us just before Christmas, but I was lifted somewhat when I saw my photos of Accrington Conservative Club used in an article in Lancashire Magazine. Although I’ve never blogged about the club on here, the pictures have been…

  • #323 – The Last Days Of Bamber Bridge (New) Mill – 7 – a few more in monochrome

    As I was about to go on holiday, I thought I’d swing by after work to get a few more shots of the mill, in case it had gone by the time I got back (it hadn’t, it was still there). The evening sun was largely in my favour, and with a cloudy sky, there…

  • #322 – The Last Days Of Bamber Bridge (New) Mill – 6 – a few in monochrome

    With a spare hour after a week spent on the road, I made the short trip up the A6 to see what was left of the mill. The answer – everything that was there on my previous visit the week before, nothing had changed. Unfortunately, I’d forgotten that in the morning, the sun is behind the…

  • #321 – The Last Days Of Bamber Bridge (New) Mill – 5

    #321 – The Last Days Of Bamber Bridge (New) Mill – 5

    Once I’d got the main photos, I tried a few more experimental ones. I like to try to get different perspectives in an attempt to tell a bigger story, and the flexibility of a 14x zoom enabled me to do this easily. These are variations of one I took at Fernhurst Mill a few years back,…

  • #320 – The Last Days Of Bamber Bridge (New) Mill – 4

     The view from the north (end) The once monolithic landmark is reduced to a much more compact form. The demolition has been a methodical dismantling, and a relatively neat affair (or at least as neat as deconstructing thousands of tonnes of brick, concrete and other dusty, dirty materials can ever be), and just one section…

  • #319 – The Last Days Of Bamber Bridge (New) Mill – 3

    The days of swinging a big iron ball are long gone, demolition these days is more like deconstruction. A long arm excavator with a powerful claw pulls the building apart, and then places all the material for recycling into big piles or straight into trucks. It does make for slow progress though, especially when there is…

  • #318 – The Last Days of Bamber Bridge (New) Mill – 2

    I grew up in a town full of red brick mills. They were all very similar to New Mill, being very large 4 or 5 storey mills, sometimes in large complexes of two, three, four or even five mills. As the industry shrunk dramatically from the early 60’s onwards, these giants and their chimnies started…

  • #317 – The Last Days of Bamber Bridge (New) Mill – 1

    New Mill was a massive local landmark, towering over the main street and neat terraced streets of Bamber Bridge. It could also be seen quite prominently from the M6, and was adjacent to the Blackburn – Preston railway line. You really had to try hard not to see it, as it was the tallest building…

  • #311 – Mechanical Engineering 2

    After posting the last photo of rusting machinery, I remembered this one I took of the old steam crane in the Jumbles Quarry. I wish I’d tried some different compositions as I don’t think this is the best one, but it’s the only one I took like this, regrettably. Whether a photo should have a focal point is a…

  • #304 – Gate

    Oakenclough Paper mill was a large rural mill in he middle of nowhere that closed quite suddenly in the 1960’s. It is in a strangely isolated spot onthe edge of the moorland above Lancaster, and is still occupied by a number of busineses so there was no exploring to be done unfortunately. I was impressed…

  • #298 – Ainscoughs Flour Mill

    #298 – Ainscoughs Flour Mill

    Another joint explore with Gibbo and R1. Standing prominent on the rural south Lancashire flatlands, is a tall brick chimney and a Victorian flour mill. Probably the largest and highest structure between Liverpool and Preston, Ainscough’s flour mill was once a major employer in the quiet little town of Burscough. It closed in the late 90’s…

  • #292 – Re-visiting photos 1

    #292 – Re-visiting photos 1

    I’m in the middle of putting some themed Blurb books together and went for a rummage round the darker recesses of my Lightroom catalogue. Lightroom is a great piece of software and I now tend to do much of my photo editing on it (apart form mono conversions and multi layer work), and it’s a vastly…

  • #288 – Big Wheel

    Ever since The London Eye brought Ferris Wheels back into vogue in the UK, they’ve been popping up all over the place in the UK. Manchester has had one semi-permanently in the Triangle for some years (although not this year), as have other large towns and cities, so I was quite surprised to see one…

  • #269 – Mechanical Funscape 2

    These images are variations on the same theme as the image in the last post. As before, the black and white treatment has brought out the texture of the slightly corroded, painted surfaces of the steelwork. By removing the distraction of colour, the shapes are now far more prominent as are things like the repeating…

  • #268 – Mechanical Funscape 1

    Engineers have turned their attention to all manner of things, developing machines to serve us in many ways – for example, to feed us, transport us, clean us, kill us, and in the photograph above, to frighten the living $&%! out of us. Camelot is Chorley’s own theme park, and about ten minutes from my…

  • #257 – Riverdance

    I posted this photograph of the MS Riverdance a couple of years back, but seeing the recent posts on Geotopoi of the wreck of the MV Carrier brought back a few memories. The story is well documented – storm force winds hit Britain at the end of January 2008, and overnight, the cargo ferry Riverdance was hit by…

  • #244 – Belgrave Mills

    I’ve had an IPad for a while and find it to be a monumental distraction – mine’s stuffed full of music, photos, games, books and various other apps. It’s ease of use and quick start up make our netbook feel like a Commodore 64. One thing I hadn’t really tried out until recently were the photo…

  • #231 – Huncoat Power Station

    #231 – Huncoat Power Station

    East Lancashire is a pretty grim place, and I’m saying that from the bitter experience as I used to live and work there. Most of the large private employers have moved out, and with the current swingeing public sector cuts, it ain’t getting any better. If it wasn’t for the aerospace sector, there would be very…

  • #150 – Walking The Dog

    ‘I’ve been busy of late with work and family, so here’s a photo from a couple of years back. It was taken the morning after the ‘Riverdance’ ferry ran aground at Cleveleys, just north of Blackpool on the Lancashire coast in January 2008. It was a freezing cold day, literally, as strong winds blew icy…

  • #133 – Narrow Gauge in North Lancashire

    Unlike my post a few weeks back on the West Lancashire Narrow Gauge, this railway no longer exists. It was only in existence for about ten years during the 1920’s – 1930’s, to assist in the construction of the Stocks Reservoir, deep in the Trough Of Bowland. It linked the Jumbles Quarry with the main construction…

  • #129 – An Unusual Visitor – Part 2

    Just a few more of the River Carrier before it left Preston. I packed a camera and visited the dock on my way into work in the morning, and as expected, I got a nice reflection due to the stillness of the air and the sun being low. Shame about the dockside being on the bottom…