tarboat's photos

In c1820 George Lambert and Abraham Bury started a small brickworks near Brink Farm with one kiln to fire the bricks. When they needed to expand they moved to the site in Bakestonedale.By 1848 George Lambert was operating a coal and fireclay mine with associated Pott Brickworks on the south side of the road at Bakestonedale, Pott Shrigley. Lambert was still working the Pott Shrigley coal mine in 1884 but had relinquished the firebrick works to James Hall before 1878. By 1896 all had been absorbed into the business of William Hammond on the north side of the road. This firebrick must therefore date from between 1848 and 1878.

The Grane brickworks opened in September 1895. A newspaper report of the opening described the plant: "The present works consist of a boiler house, engine house, machine house, and grinding house. They are erected in red brick, and are easily accessible, facing the turnpike. The boiler is 37ft by 7ft. No.1 Grinding mill is 9ft in diameter. The engines which can be worked up to 90 horse power, are by Bellhouse of Manchester. The machinery is of the latest patent and is applied by Messrs. C. Whittaker & Co. of Accrington. It is expected as the works now stand, a turn out of 500 bricks a hour can be effected. There is now only one machine, but another four are expected."

Astley Bridge was the last mill to be built in Bolton, being completed in 1927 to the design of Bradshaw, Gass and Hope. It was designed as an electric powered mill and thus has no enginehouse. It has now been converted to apartments.

The Bolton School of Art and Design on Hilden Street was originally built in 1901 as Pupil Teachers' Centre. The architects were Bradshaw and Gass of Bolton. The building incorporates some fine terracotta ornamentation including a pair of shield-bearing lions which bear great similarity to those supplied by Dennis of Ruabon on the Co-op drapery building near the town centre.

Coal appears to have been worked under Ford Moss from the 17th century until 1914. The colliery remains, including this chimney, are now a scheduled ancient monument. They are still deteriorating rapidly.

N7 69621 at Consall with a Caldon Low train, awaits the token for the section to Leekbrook. This view through the front cab window of the arriving DMU service from Cheddleton.

Former branch of the Bolton Co-operative Society on Deane Road, Bolton.

Iron torpedoes shunting across an internal level crossing and under the No.4 blast furnace at the Dillingen steelworks. A close look into the building shows slag being teemed into ladles to be taken away for tipping. Dillinger Hütte GTS specialises in the production of heavy plate. The company was founded in Founded in 1685 and is Germany's oldest joint stock corporation.

Last shot from my epic rail trip around Yorkshire. Stockport Station is almost deserted; just this lass waiting for the last train home.

Headgear on the second shaft at 2 at Pingdingshan No.2 Colliery. This is quite a small colliery with a rather nice narrow gauge overhead wire electric railway for moving materials and coal on the surface.

Loading timber part way up the Novat branch on the forest line above Viseu-de-sus. The mud was everywhere, and typical of forestry operations. An unrepeatable scene as this branch has since been abandoned.

The Royal Doulton factory site at Burslem is well past its sell-by date.

Emerging from the sawmill sidings at Viseu-de-Sus.

The Ronquières Inclined Plane on the Brussels-Charleroi Canal has a length of 1,432 m and lifts boats through 67.73 m vertically. It consists of two large caissons mounted on rails. Each caisson measures 91 m long by 12 m wide and has a water depth between 3 and 3.70 m. It can carry one boat of 1,350 tonnes or many smaller boats within the same limits. It opened in April 1968 and replaced 14 locks. The approach across country yielded this strange vista with the approach aqueduct to the left, the viewing tower centre, and the inclined plane dipping away to the right.

I suppose that these are best described as Romney Huts. They are the maintenance base of a haulage company.

Battered terracotta on top of the disused Globe Inn, Whitworth Rd, Rochdale.

In 1837, John Taylor established a foundry in Rhydymwyn to provide mining equipment to the Mold mines. In 1862 the operations were transferred to an existing foundry at Sandycroft on the banks of the River Dee. The company specialised in making machinery for the mining industry. By 1877 the business was trading as the Sandycroft Foundry and Engine Works Company Ltd. The company was very busy supplying machinery to India, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand and numerous mines and collieries throughout Britain. By the 1920s, however, competition had increased significantly and in 1927 the works closed due to lack of orders. The site was by 1942 occupied by International Electroplate Co Ltd, and is now used for steel fabrication and general engineering. The rail connection was already disused by 1967 but even today there are rails to be seen in the floor of the main building. The front of the works suffered a fire some time ago and has been rebuilt. However, the rear section seen the background of this photo s the original erecting shop with the distinctive roof trusses that can be seen in many old photos of the works.

This mill was erected in 1833 with an early 20th century extension which was electric powered from new. The original spinning mill was powered by a twin beam engine with one line shaft driving each of 2 rows of spinning throstles on the wide spinning floors. The old mill now appears to be undergoing works preparatory to conversion to apartments.