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…
Tag: Textile Mill
#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
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
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
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…
#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…
#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…
#432 – Rossendale Mills – Albert Mill, Haslingden 5
I mentioned in my previous post about the east Lancashire mill towns being located in valleys or on hillsides. In some respects, it’s similar to the coal mines in the Welsh valleys – although in this instance it is geography rather than geology that dictated this. The textile industries initial growth was powered by water…
#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…
Mechanical Landscapes 