tarboat's photos

I spotted this whilst driving past and returned for a closer look. It appears to be a fuel pipeline pumping station dating back to WW2. The surviving building is very similar to that at Poynton (see below) although in this case the rainheads are rather fancy.

The area around Gotham in Nottinghamshire was once the centre of a busy gypsum mining industry with a series of tramways and railways leading from the mines to roadside depots or down to wharves on the River Trent or sidings on the main line railways. Today the local mines have all closed, but the plaster works at East Leake continues to work with gypsum supplied from the desulphurisation process at Ratcliffe power station. The large gypsum boulders seen here in front of the power station have been unearthed during the widening of the A453(T) road nearby. The fact that they have been gathered together suggests that they may be due for processing into the plaster industry.

Dereliction at the entrance lock to Weston Point Docks from the Manchester Ship Canal. The current owners, Stobart Group, have since demolished much of the old infrastructure on this area.

Large special shapes in moulds at a refractory brickworks. Once dried these will be fired in a modern gas oven.

Autotrain for Bridgnorth leaving Bewdley on the Severn Valley Railway.

The bowl of the intermittent field kiln at Middleton and Smerrill is lined with sandstone blocks. The missing section has been taken down in order to unload the burned lime from the kiln and would have been rebuilt once a new charge had been loaded.

The shadows lengthen as SY 0951 heads a coal train into Xifeng on the Lishu system of the Jixi Coal Railway. Now sadly dieselised.

Storage tanks at the AkzoNobel paints plant in Stowmarket.

This type 23 pillbox was built way up on High Edge to protect the extensive bomb storage area at RAF Harpur Hill. The access was over the wall at the back of the structure (right side of this view) where there was a mount for a light anti-aircraft weapon.

This winding engine was installed on the upcast shaft at Pleasley Colliery in 1922 after it was decided to deepen the upcast shaft to 904 yards and develop faces in the Deep Hard coal seam. To wind from the increased depth would require a more powerful winder working at 150 lbs per square inch and new Lancashire boilers capable of supplying steam at the increased pressure. Markhams of Chesterfield won the contract to supply a twin cylinder winder of 36 inches by 84 inches stroke, with a winding drum of 21 feet diameter. It is currently undergoing restoration by the volunteers at this excellent preservation site.

Intermittent limekilns don't come much better than this fine example hidden away in woodland in the High Peak parish of Middleton and Smerrill. It is so good that you could almost start it burning again tomorrow even though it may well have been abandoned for two hundred years. The tunnel is for draughting the kiln as the burned lime was removed out of the top of the pot after a section of the bowl had been removed.

This used to be the Cheshire Lines Committee route to Stockport Tiviot Dale and on towards Manchester Central or Liverpool, but now the end of the line is just behind the camera. The shed contains the gravity unloading point for stone trains serving the Readymix concrete plant at Bredbury. A short distance away on the other side is the branch to the waste terminal.

This power station was built by the Intercom (now Electrabel) in 1921. Monceau sur Sambre was still an independent municipality and the new coal plant was one of the largest in Belgium. In the 50's and 60's, the plant was expanded and after Monceau sur Sambre in 1977 was added to the town of Charleroi this was the main supplier of energy in the region. Originally coal.fired, the newer part ran on gas and stood for years standby for any emergencies. It was closed in 2007.

The Swan Lane No.3 Mill was built in 1914 to the design of Stott & Sons of Oldham. The Swan Lane Spinning Co Ltd. finally closed the mill in 1963 and it is now partly occupied by a range of businesses. It is listed Grade II* but is on the register of buildings at risk. This is one of many decorative features reflecting the name of this fine mill.

The afternoon passenger train leaves the first tunnel as it climbs uphill from Mifengyang on the Shibanxi Coal Railway.

Henry Faija was an engineer who came from Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1868 and became managing partner at the Railway Foundry Company, Stoke-on-Trent. His partner in the business was Alfred Barlow who was a significant building contractor in the Potteries and surrounding areas in the 1860s. He was responsible for the building of the Wedgwood Institute in Burslem amongst many other public buildings. He is listed as a brick manufacturer in a trade directory for 1865 at Railway Works, Stoke-on-Trent. His business got into some financial difficulties in April 1868 with liabilities of £27,000. It appears that arrangements were agreed to deal with his cash flow problems and the business continued until his death in late 1868 or early 1869. The foundry was situated east of the Derby line and just south of the Stoke engine shed. It included a brickworks with 3 round kilns.

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

The very productive Mill Close lead mine erected a Cornish type engine in 1859-60 at Watts Shaft which was some 300ft deep to limestone ore-bearing beds under the local shales. Thornwill and Warham of Burton-on-Trent supplied an 80 horsepower engine with a cylinder fifty inches in diameter. Watts Shaft was used until 1889 when operations moved to the Warren Carr site some distance away. Today a small portion of the bob wall survives with the capped shaft still evident in front. It is a scheduled ancient monument but is suffering badly from tree growth on the structure.