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…
Tag: Lancashire
#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…
#128 – An unusual visitor!
***Another somewhat off-topic blog post!*** Preston Docks shut to commercial shipping in 1981, having only made a profit 17 times in 90 years. One of the biggest problems was dredging – being an inland port, the River Ribble needed constant dredging and in 1975-76, 45% of income was sued to keep the channel clear. With ships getting bigger…
#110 – Grown Up Scalextric – One Way
I quickly got bored of photographing tarmac. I can do that in my street outside my house, so I looked for things that made this place unique. There weren’t too many, but there one or two things that made it interesting.
#109 – Grown Up Scalextric – Tyres
I don’t know why, but I was surprised to see piles of tyres at the test track. Turns out most of them were to indicate where manholes were, becuase the manhole covers had all been nicked. However, it did seem appropriate somehow.
#108 – Grown Up Scalextric – Armco
I used to have a Scalextric when I was younger, complete with banked corners, cross-overs and all sorts. At around that time, this place was in full swing, testing trucks from the production lines at the nearby Leyland Motors Works. Since then, the place has gone into an irreversible decline, and like pretty much all of…
#70 – When colour works…..
I’ve blogged a few times about how sometimes colour works best, and sometime black and white does. Here’s one where colour does. I visited Jumbles Quarry deep in the Trough of Bowland with David Kitching (see his excellent website here), after failing miserably a couple of weeks back. Tracing the route of the old railway…
#66 – it doesn’t always go according to plan… (part 3)
Somewhere in this valley is a quarry that was abandoned in the 1920’s, complete with steam crane and some railway track. Unfortunately I’ve no idea where. I’d seen a report on a forum containing some pictures from the 70’s, and a search on geograph eventually showed me where it was. However, with all the recent…
Mechanical Landscapes 