tarboat's photos

When viewed from the hill behind the Castner Kellner chemical works in Runcorn it is hard to believe that Hale lighthouse overlooks a vast range of chemical factories and an oil refinery.

West bank view of Fiddler's Ferry one cold February night.

One of the beams on the two cylinder Middleton Top winding engine on the Cromford & High Peak Railway.

QJ 6843 JS 5693 and JS 5740 at Suihua Station and freight yard. At this time the rail services at Suihua were nearly all steam operated and most trains changed locomotives here.

Quinn Cement operates two plants one on each side of the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. Evening sunlight catches the preheater tower and silos of the Scotchtown operation in Ballyconnell. Combined production is in the region of 1.7 million tonnes per annum.

The is only one canal tunnel in Ireland and this is to be found on the remains of the Ulster Canal in Monaghan town. It allowed the canal to pass under Old Cross Square and was 174 ft long with a towpath to one side. Today the western end is infilled and the portal is not visible.

Inside the old roundhouse the stalls where the locomotives were stabled have been converted for engineering use.

Boulby Potash Mine is operated by Cleveland Potash Ltd, a subsidiary of Israel Chemicals Ltd. There are two 5.5m diameter shafts to a depth of around 1150m. The potash averages 7m in thickness but ranges from nil to over 20m. Beneath the potash there are rock salt beds of about 40m and the main roadways for the mine are driven in pure rock salt 8-10m below the potash.

Driven around 1750 the Goyt's Moss Sough drains the Yard seam under moorland at the head of the Goyt Valley.

Not too far from where it was manufactured. A product of the brickworks at Fenton Colliery seen at the Acme Marls site in Burslem.

The Hindlow Quarry buildings and plant cut a stark contrast to the greenery all around. In the centre is the bridge carrying the former Buxton to Ashbourne railway which now runs as far as Dowlow for stone traffic. Hindlow Station once stood to the right of the bridge.

The trains never stop running on the Sandaoling opencast mine system. At sunset a train pushes up onto the spoil tips.

JS class No.8122 heads the morning passenger service away from Mine 8 on the Pingdingshan Coal Railway.

Behind the kilns. Acme Marls at Burslem used to make clay refractories and kiln furniture such as shelf supports. Most of the site has now been cleared and the major buildings remaining are the three bottle ovens which are listed structures, for what such protection is worth. These last remaining downdraught kilns in the Staffordshire Potteries look very sad and completely out of context with the rest of the works gone. So much for valuing our heritage.

Today I was able to explore a few bits of the Potteries that I had not seen before. This is a scene part way along Short Street in Longton where the boundary wall of Enson Works with its several bottle ovens stands looking rather forlorn. The whole pottery is listed Grade II but its condition is very poor.

The hills of East Cheshire have seen extensive coal mining in some fairly remote locations. This is the site of the Dane Thorn Colliery which was working in the second half of the nineteenth century. I was standing by the collapsed adit entrance to the upper workings and looking along the line of the tubroad to the waste tip which has the greener vegetation. To the left of the tip are the remains of a small stone building. This must have been a hard place to work in winter when a walk of several mile would have been necessary to reach the mine each day. Behind is Shutlingsloe and the communications on Croker Hill is visible in the centre background.

Cold times for the shunting crew on the Beipiao Coal Railway as they head for the waste tipping point at Yijing.

Stone mill, brick chimney. Several different periods of development are evident at the Clarence Mill in Bollington.