tarboat's photos

Another great find from a mooch around the Potteries with Capitol 203. The Goldendale Brick & Tile Co, Tunstall, is listed in the 1904 Kelly's directory. It is not listed in any other directory that I have seen before or after, so I suspect that the works had a short life.

I had been looking for something made by the Jabez Thonpson works for some time, so was delighted when Capitol 203 and myself found some examples of his terracotta work during a mooch around the Potteries.

After years of work by the volunteers at the excellent Anson Engine Museum in Poynton the mill engine saw its first public steaming this weekend. This horizontal cross-compound was built in 1903 by Stott & Co of Haslingden and had operated until 1960 at the premises of Messrs A Barton & Sons, wadding manufacturers, of Hazel Grove, Stockport.

A cotton spinning mill built in 1905 to the designs of P. S. Stott for the Durban Mill Co. Ltd. The Lancashire Cotton Corporation took over c1957 and production ended in 1962. It was later reused as a mail order warehouse but currently appears to be disused. The Yates & Thom engine here was of 1750 hp. In the background is Royd Mill, designed by A. J. Howcroft and built in 1907 for the local Murgatroyd family. It was soon transferred to Royd Mill Ltd and then extended in 1912 and 1924. The Lancashire Cotton Corporation took over in the 1930s and then Courtaulds in 1964. Production ceased in 1981 and it was then occupied by a textile factor although it now appears to be mainly empty. The 1500 hp mill engine was by J & E Wood. The bare foreground area was once the Brook Mills, recently demolished.

Tarboat Junior straps a boat into a lock at Audlem on the Shropshire Union Canal. This technique stops the boat and closes the gate at the same time. :-)

Narrow gauge as it should be. Mallet in action on the Selketalbahn as the train approaches Straßberg.

Out in the desert to the east of the small town of Linwu the Daba- Guyaozi coal railway passes a brickworks a few kilometres from Guyaozi. On a dark January day it had just begun to snow, a precursor to a severe blizzard that nearly trapped our bus after dark, and QJ 7205 heads downhill with a loaded train heading for Daba and the interchange with China Rail. I understand that China Rail has now taken over the operation of this line.

The Ridge Hill Brick & Tile Co appears in White’s 1851 Directory of Staffordshire as brick. tile, and drain pipe manufacturers. In 1904 Thomas Peake was manager. The works was situated by the Leycett branch railway just south of Madeley Heath Farm. By 1924 the site was occupied by Keele Tileries Ltd. Photo from Ken Perkins.

It's amazing what you can find in drawers and cupboards that you haven't looked in for a long time. This flyer for the Manchester City Transport Airport service I must have picked up in Manchester in 1967. I certainly remember the service starting in 1966 (I think) and the coaches as they were such a contrast to the red buses operated by the council in Manchester.

A patch of late afternoon sunlight reaches the train as 764-421 drops down towards Botizu with a heavy load of timber on the forestry line at Viseu de Sus.

In 1853 I wonder how many of the workmen would have been able or inclined to read this notice? By inference it appears to have been ok to smoke and use naked lights in pits where gas was not present. As far as I know all the Poynton pits were gassy!

JS 8030 at Qilidian on the Pingdingshan Coal Railway, having arrived light engine to collect the coal train seen alongside.

Seen over the frozen subsidence ponds a passenger service heads back into Hegang soon after leaving Fuli mine on the Hegang Coal Railway.

Flames, fumes and safety equipment all in evidence at the Monckton Cokeworks.

The Baxenden brickworks was situated just south of Baxenden Station and appears to have had a short life. It opened after 1893 and was already disused in 1911.

H.J.Baldwin Brickworks, Bunny, Nottinghamshire. This works, just south of Nottingham, was closed some time after 1986 and the claypit used for landfill.

James Barker, Ingleton Fireclay Works, operating from c1895 - 1905.

I can't find where this works was located. Black Hill is on the Darwen side of Entwistle, but the only brickworks I can find on the old maps is that at Bull Hill which is a different operation.