tarboat's photos

Nisent type corrugated iron building at the Waterways Ireland wharf at Portumna on the River Shannon.

Rather than demolish this corrugated iron building when the metal wasted away, the Millom OAP's Association Hall has been entirely reclad in the modern equivalent and is again fit for many years of service.

Beringen Colliery closed in 1989 and part of the site is now used as a mining museum. The second shaft headgear does not seem to have much attention lavished upon it and the roof over the sheaves has been removed.

The Moonta mines in South Australia were operating from 1860 until 1923 and produced about 170,000 tons of copper metal. There are still extensive remains of the industry to be seen around the area and this includes a number of enginehouses. This example was completed in 1869 and housed a 32 inch Cornish beam engine driving crushing and concentration machinery. The engine ceased operation in 1917 and was replaced by a gas engine.

This is one of three kilns on this hillside at Scales Green, a few miles from Ulverston, and is much larger than the other two. The kiln is generally in very good condition although the tree growth on top will eventually destroy the structure if not removed. A particularly rare survival is the lime shed/store on the front. The roof of the shed has been repaired recently and it is now used for agricultural storage.

Defending the main road to Barrow is this pillbox at Haverthwaite.

The 6840 gross tonnage nuclear fuel carrier Pacific Grebe lies adjacent to the Goliath crane in Ramsden Dock, Barrow-in-Furness. With sister ships Pacific Egret and Pacific Heron the vessel is engaged in transporting Highly Active Waste from Sellafield back to the country of origin - mainly Europe and Japan. These British registered ships are the UK's only armed merchant ships with a defence force on each provided by the nuclear industry police.

The slate built kiln at Yewdale outside Coniston dates from the 18th century and has evidence of a timber lime shed having once been attached to the face of the structure. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and also listed Grade II.

A long lens view of the Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Cumbria. According to Wikipedia: Sellafield houses "the most hazardous industrial building in western Europe" (building B30) and the second-most (building B38), which hold a variety of leftovers from the first Magnox plants in ageing ponds.

Production at the Rasp Mine in central Broken Hill has a long and profitable history. Development ceased in 2008 when metal prices fell but as since resumed and the mine currently employs c160 people. Annual production is planned to average 34,000 tonnes of zinc metal in concentrate, 28,000 tonnes of lead metal in concentrate, and 1.1 million ounces of silver in the lead concentrate.

The prisoner of war camp at Cultybraggan was completed in late 1941 and originally used to house Italian prisoners. It was later used as a transit camp for Germans and as a high security establishment for holding ardent nazis. Later it became a MOD training centre until closure in 2004. It is now owned by the local community through the Comrie Development Trust. The camp still contains a large number of nissen huts and these make a spectacular sight.

Right up to closure in June 1912 this winding engine by Dinglersche Maschinenfabrik A.G. in 1918 was used to wind materials in one of the shafts. Coal production by this time was brought up a drift.

St Gwrhai's church hall at Penstrowed just to the west of Newtown, Powys. The adjacent church gets all the attention in the texts I have been able to locate so far. The Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust website rabbits on about the nineteenth century church building and completely ignores this little gem.

With the backdrop of Snowdon, a train for Porthmadog arrives behind one of the ex South African Garratts.

Some of the iron production from the blast furnaces of Dillinger Hütte GTS is sent by rail as hot metal in torpedo wagons. These four torpedoes are heading for the Röchling-Burbach steelworks at Völklingen a few kilometres from Dillingen.

The afternoon passenger train is about to enter the first tunnel as it climbs uphill from Mifengyang on the Shibanxi Coal Railway.

Daw Mill, which was Britains most productive colliery in recent years, is now shut down and abandoned after a major underground fire. This view was made few years ago when it seemed to have a fairly decent future.

This derelict crane sums up the state of Weston Point Docks in the early 21st century. Hopefully the current owners, Stobart Group, will oversee a revival of fortunes for this historic port area.