tarboat's photos

Male Common Hawker ( Aeshna juncea ) seen at a moorland pond in Sutton, North-east Cheshire.

Wooden garages at Philpstoun, West Lothian. Provision of garages in groups such as this was a popular phenomenon in the 1950s. I was surprised to find the practice alive and well in 2002.

Elliot House is on the corner of Lloyd Street and Deansgate. It dates from 1878 and was once the offices of the School Board. The architects were Royle and Bennett. The frontage is both sandstone, with some fine carvings, and terracotta such as this panel.

A C2 class locomotive stands outside the maintenance depot gates on the Xingyang Brickworks Railway. This idiosyncratic little line continues to operate, with two of these little narrow gauge locomotives hauling clay to the works. Unfortunately, on this visit the working locomotive had just failed.

Morning activity as JS 5644 leaves Tianzhuang yard on the Pingdingshan Coal Railway with a long train of coal empties.

It was a bright day and ideal for a walk through Macclesfield Forest and up Shutlingsloe. The distant views were a bit hazy but Tegg's Nose Country Park is still clear enough in this view over a recently felled area with Trentabank reservoir in the centre.

Niamh has been in training, scaling the Cheshire Matterhorn.

Pilgrims on the skyline having ascended the flagged path to the heaven that is Shutlingsloe. Mind you it can be quite windy in this particular heaven. ;-)

Control centre for the conveyors, screens and secondary crushing at a disused limestone quarry plant. Lots of buttons to press! :-)

Opened in 1843 the Bentley Canal ran down a flight of 10 locks from the junction with the Wyrley & Essington Canal at Wednesfield for a distance of nearly three and a half miles to its junction with the Anson Branch. The section from the bottom of the six Wednesfield Locks to the Anson Branch was closed in 1960. The rest remained open but in reality became unusable very quickly due to lack of maintenance and removal of paddlegear. A few intrepid boaters forced a passage in the early 1970s and then it was abandoned and filled in. This view from April 1984 shows the second lock full of rubbish and with top gates missing. Industrial devastation encroaches in the background. Today the scene is virtually unrecognisable with industrial units built on the canal line.

44422 on the ash pit at Cheddleton yard as night falls after a busy day working at the Winter Steam Gala.

I have been seeking a brick from this works for a long time, and I am extremely grateful to Tim Lawton for spotting this in a housing demolition area of Hanley. This is Tim's photo and he has kindly allowed me to use it here. The Wall Grange Staffordshire Brick Co. Ltd. had their works off Park Lane, Wall Grange near Longsdon, Leek. It appears to have operated from the mid 1890s to the early 1950s. I believe that the works used Foden steam lorries at one time and would love to see a photograph of one of those in action, preferably loaded with bricks.

Brunner Mond, Lostock works near Northwich. The Trent & Mersey Canal runs through the middle of the plant.

Offices at the former Crosfield's soapworks in Warrington. The company was the manufacturer of Persil. I haven't yet found a date for this building. In 1911 the Crosfield was purchased by Brunner, Mond & Company and in 1919 it was absorbed into Lever Brothers. From 1929 Crosfield was a subsidiary of Unilever. In 1997 it was acquired by ICI and in 2001, Ineos Capital purchased the company. The name Crosfield was finally lost as it was renamed Ineos Silicas. The site has now been split between different organisations, with the main part site now belonging to the PQ Corporation, previously INEOS Chemicals.

QJ 6961 banking a heavy timber train on the Nancha bank. The driver is listening for the whistle from the train engines once they are over the summit.

At the far end of the Hengshan division of the Jixi collieries is Zhangxin Mine. This is unusual for this area as it is a deep mine with conventional headgear.

Looking to Bosley Minn from the summit of Shutlingsloe on a day when the clouds were almost touching my head.

71000 stands in the yard at Buckley Wells during the night photoshoot.