tarboat's photos

The London Mill weaving mill of Brough Nicholson & Hall stands on Ashbourne Road in Leek, adjacent to the York Mill to which it is connected by a tunnel under Well Street. Today it stands derelict and deteriorating.

Best viewed large. During the 19th Century the tentacles of the Great Northern Railway (GNR) stretched out across Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire and even into Staffordshire with a rambling branch from Uttoxeter to Stafford. The Awsworth Junction to Derby line opened in January 1878 and finally closed to all traffic in 1973. A significant reminder of this line is the1452 feet long Bennerley Viaduct across the Erewash Valley at a height of 60 feet. Constructed between May 1876 and November 1877, to the design of GNR Chief Civil Engineer Richard Johnson, the viaduct uses wrought iron rather than brick due to the unstable nature of the land. There are 16 lattice spans and three iron skew spans over the Erewash Canal and Midland Railway at the western end. The Grade II listed structure is currently owned by a railway cycle path organisation and the viaduct is deteriorating with the deck in particular developing some alarming rust holes. I doubt whether funding for maintenance will ever be forthcoming and would expect this spectacular piece of civil engineering to be removed in a few years time.

Winter sunrise at the Tianzhuang shed of the Pingdingshan Coal Railway. The whole depot was enveloped in a man-made fog as the locomotives were serviced at morning shift change.

Qilidian cokeworks near Pingdingshan.

The light is fading fast as JS 8030 brings the empties into Fangzhuangzhan on the Pingdingshan Coal Railway.

Giscol (registered as a company in 1888) was the trading name of the Glasgow Iron & Steel Company Limited an iron and steel producer with foundries and iron works situated in West Central Scotland. Today the name is used by Caradale Traditional Brick Ltd after a management buyout of the company in 1997. Today the company has two brickworks - the Etna works at Armadale, West Lothian and the Mayfield works at Carluke, Lanarkshire. Caradale is unique in the traditional brick making sector in that it uses shale clays. They're more difficult to work but they make a harder, more durable brick suitable for the extremes of British weather.

An often neglected corner of old Macclesfield is to be found down the side of the old Town Hall building next to the Parish Church in the Market Place.

Slurry tank at an abandoned stone processing works.

Former chemical works based inside an old textile mill. Closed down and production transferred to somewhere with lower production costs.

Hyde Town Hall was opened on 27th June 1885. The architect was J.W. Beaumont. Terracotta detail is offset by extensive use of ashlar work in a building that was designed at the start of the brief popularity of terracotta in civic design in the UK.

The Theatre Royal in Hyde opened in 1902 to the design of Architects Campbell and Horsley of Manchester and the building contractors Robinson and Sons of Hyde. The cost of building was £10,000. It seated 1200. In 1914 a cinerma screen was added and live shows and cinema were both presented until the last live performance in 1974. A second screen was then built on the stage area and the two screen cinema continued to run until final closure in 1992. Today the building is a listed structure and a charity group is pressing for restoration and re-use of the building rather than demolition.

I keep coming back to this place. Best viewed original size .

The newer of the two coal-fired power stations in Yuanbaoshan, Mongolian Autonomous Region of China.

Nanshan Mine is situated a short distance from the centre of the city of Hegang in North-east China.

This building in Bollington was built in 1818 as a fireproof water-powered cotton spinning mill. The engine and boiler houses were probably added by Samuel Greg in 1832. Today a large part of the premises is occupied by a paper laminating and coating company.

The chimney of the Clarence Mill in Bollington looks somewhat incongruous alongside the mill itself. Constructed in several phases during the nineteenth century the building uses locally quarried gritstone whereas the replacement chimney was erected in 1914 by which time brick had become the material of choice.

Frames of a C2 class locomotive in one of the workshops of the Yinghao Coal Railway at Yinghaomeikuang. Will it ever steam again?

Disused mine at Yinghaomeikuang in Henan Province, central China. A new mine was being developed a few miles away but this village had that sad feel of a place that had lost it's raison d'etre.