tarboat's photos

This plate is on a dynamo supplied by McClure & Whitfield for powering the projectors at the Brookfield Cinema in Poynton, Cheshire, in 1938. The translation - Mersey, I'm ready. The Mersey Dynamo works of McClure & Whitfield appears to have originated in a foundry business called Cameron Pearson which was merged into McClure & Whitfield in 1892 and became one of the first electrical engineering companies in the world, manufacturing dynamos. McClure & Whitfield installed the first electrical lighting powered by one of their dynamos on the Embankment in 1897, it also supplied the navy through 2 world wars with steering and drive motors for submarines, surface ships and indeed for mulberry harbour. In 1946 the business partnership existing between David McClure and Robert Brotherton Whitfield dissolved but the business continued. The company still exists and is still a private company owned by the family trading as Piggott and Whitfield Ltd, based in the North-West and in the City of London, installing mechanical, electrical, control and data systems into commercial and industrial properties all over the UK and beyond.

Garden wall on Netherfield Road, Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire. This type of decorative wall cappers and gateposts is typical of the products of the Glossop brickworks.

Garden wall on Netherfield Road, Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire. This type of decorative wall cappers and gateposts is typical of the products of the Glossop brickworks.

The 999grt bulk cargo ship Matrisha was launched in Japan in 1976 and, after a number of name and ownership changes, was wrecked after running aground on the south coast of Ireland. After salvage the hulk was towed to this remote quay on the Shannon estuary where it was used to store cement for a number of years. It was lying quietly rusting and awaiting its fate. The ship was finally cut up and scrapped in 2011.

The morning empties and coach for the loggers is climbing the valley above the junction at Novat on the Wassertalbahn, Viseu-de-Sus, Romania.

The Aberthaw and Bristol Channel Portland Cement Company was established in 1912 by the Beynon family. The works started in 1914 with two small wet process kilns with a production capacity of 120 tonnes per day each. A third wet kiln was added after the Second World War, and a fourth in 1957. This brought clinker capacity to 1200 tonnes per day. In 1967, Kiln 5, a much more efficient dry process kiln, was installed. The wet process kilns were decommissioned in 1974, and Kiln 6 - also a dry kiln was started in 1975. Kiln 6 remains in operation today. In 1919 the company took over the nearby Aberthaw and Rhoose Point Portland and Lime Company. Blue Circle bought the two sites at Aberthaw and Rhoose in 1983. In 1987 Rhoose Works closed. Lafarge Cement UK bought Blue Circle industries PLC in 2001, creating the largest cement maker in the world. Cement from the site is carried to destinations by Road and Rail (rail services being provided by Freightliner heavy haul and Colas Rail over the Vale of Glamorgan Line). Thanks to Wikipedia for the history.

The bicarbonate of soda wharf at Brunner Mond's Winnington Works. Sadly ships no longer call here.

Locos with fires banked for the night at the Bukinje depot of the mining adminstration in Tuzla.

The Tarmac Quarry at Wredon was abandoned in 2003 and has since been the subject of a successful planning application to amalgamate it with the adjacent Wardlow Quarry. For several years the plant stood abandoned and derelict but all has now been swept away in the expanded workings.

It is well worth looking up whilst walking around a town or city as there are often interesting architectural details lurking high up. This row of chimney stacks is on Peter Street in Manchester and would at one time have been topped with chimneypots. The stone detailing of the building is also a nice touch.

Haig Pit at Whitehaven was sunk in 1914 and closed in 1986. The surviving buildings at the pithead were incorporated into a mining museum but this closed in 2016. At teh time of my visit the visitor centre was being used by West Cumbria Mining as offices for their project to establish a new mine for coking coal nearby.

The Duisburg-Walsum power station was built in 1928 to use coal from the adjacent Walsum coal mine. It has subsequently been expanded and modernised with increasingly large generating plant. The latest is Block 10 on which construction started in 2006 with a view to commissioning in 2010. Unfortunately the use of a low-alloy steel, designed for higher pressures and temperatures, in the evaporator section of the boiler led to over 3,000 leaky welds and after rectification more leaks during the testing process in May 2011. The faulty section had to be replaced with tried and tested steel and it was not until April 2013 that the boiler was fired for the first time using oil. Sunsequently the boiler has been run on hard coal and after problems with the Hitachi generator were resolved the plant has been able to generate up to 800Mw and commercial operation began in December 2013. The late completion of the plant has led to a number of damages claims running to hundreds of millions of Euros.

Jewellers P Vaughton and Sons was founded in 1819 by Philip Vaughton. Their Livery Street "Gothic Works" was built in 1902/03 and shortly afterwards the business became Vaughtons Ltd trading as silversmiths, goldsmiths and general manufacturers. The FA Cup and the 1908 Olympic medals were made here. Vaughtons are still in business, although not at this location. They are one of the UK’s premier manufacturers of Automotive badges, Medals, Civic regalia and Chains of Office. The Gothic Works is listed Grade II and is now a hostel.

A warning at what was the Omya/Lafarge Dowlow limestone quarry. This quarry was acquired by Breedon Aggregates Limited from Hope Construction Materials in 2016.

Small gas-fired hoffmann kiln inside the buildings of a refractory brickworks making a range of special firebrick shapes for industrial use.

Spigot mortar base at Windy Knoll overlooking the roads into Castleton in the Peak National Park. The farmhouse to the right is at the top of the Winnats Pass whilst to the left is the now closed route of the Mam Tor road.

Gas bill for 1850-51 issued by the Macclesfield Gas Light Company. 5s 0d per 1,000 cubic feet used. I note that it was not paid until October 1851; would they would have been cut off these days for delaying payment for so long?

Living huts at the Snape Farm prisoner of war camp at Weston, near Crewe. These have corrugated asbestos cement sheet for roofing rather than the corrugated iron used elsewhere in the camp. This satellite camp for Crewe Hall housed Italian prisoners in the later years of the war.