tarboat's photos

Fletchers 'Storm King' ventilator at the Bee Hive Mills, Great Lever, Bolton. Many brickworks made a wide range of clay products beyond common bricks and this is just one example. Sadly this is now gone as one of the mills burned down and all has been demolished and replaced with houses.

Buildings at the Rosemary Hill Tileries on Cemetery Road, Silverdale. The was a brickworks operating on this site from before 1841 when it was occupied by William Brough. John Nash Peake took on the yard in 1875 and then Walley and Alsop making tiles in 1921. From 1926 to 1975 it was T E Walley and then G H Downing Ltd until sold to Steetley brick in 1981. A year later Steetley closed the works and transferred production to Knutton Tileries nearby. The marl hole continued in use to supply other works until after 2006 when it became a landfill with significant subsequent problems for the locals due to smells.

Barnsley has a lot of art deco architecture in the central area including this block of offices and shops at the corner of Eldon Street and Regent Street South. It was built in 1927 for photographer Warner Gothard whose initials can be seen above the first floor window at the corner. Above the ground floor it is faced in cream terracotta.

Scrap line at the locomotive depot in Malakwal. Centre stage is standard Goods Superheated (SGS) 0-6-0 2428.

These 2 bottle kilns in Longton were built in the late 19th century as part of the Commerce Works pottery. The pottery was run by the Chetham family from 1796 - 1869 and then taken over by H.J Aynsley in 1873. Final closure came in the 1990s and the site has stood derelict since. The building is listed Grade II but I doubt that will save it.

Clay preparation at the Shepshed works of Charnwood Forest Brick Ltd which is a component of Michelmersh Brick Holdings PLC. The Company was producing approximately 3 million facing bricks and special shaped bricks per annum.

The former NCB workshops at Duckmanton were provided a supply and repair centre for much of the coal mining activity in the Derbyshire coalfield. The building is now split into industrial units.

Crude oil tanker Kanaris 21 discharges at the Tranmere oil terminal on the Mersey. The second berth on the right is occupied by the tug Svitzer Amazonas covering the contract to have at least one tug available on the river at all times. The Malta registered Kanaris 21 was built in 2021 and has a deadweight of 156,921 tonnes,

Two spoil trains pass at the base of the high tip on the western end of the Sandaoling opencast pit. The Taklamakan Desert stretches out behind to the Tian Shan mountain range some 25 miles to the north.

Maerz limekilns at the Tarmac Hindlow Quarry. The stone for burning is brought in by rail from Tunstead as quarrying has been suspended here. Tarmac is proposing to restart quarrying at the site and has been undergoing consultation on the plans.

Light fades at the Lhoist operated Brierlow Quarry. The steam is from the hydration plant adjacent to the two limekilns.

With the imminent demise of soda ash production at the Tata Chemicals Lostock Works on the edge of Northwich, I thought a farewell visit was in order. The plant was hard at work with plenty of steam from the lime plant seen centre rear. The crane and new steelwork showing at the left rear is associated with the construction of an energy from waste power station due to open in 2025 but probably running behind schedule.

'Borr', seen here in Liverpool Docks, is a water injection dredger that was built in 2015 at the Dutch Technical & Maritime Services yard, Werkendam. It is transportable by Road. and can be equipped with a multi-purpose unit for a cutter system, various grabs or pile drivers and is capabile of dredging to a depth of 14m. The name comes from Nordic mythology and means ‘son’.

Hyde Library was originally Hyde Technical School and Free Library. The foundation stone was laid in 1897 and it opened in 1899 replacing the former Mechanics Institute. In 2015 library services were moved into the Town Hall and the building abandoned. It is not listed and is now in a terrible state. The terracotta ornamentation on the building is lavish and is topped-off by a statue of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom and sponsor of the arts, trade, and strategy, holding a book.

SY 0527 shunts the loading point in the dusty, dirty gloom that was Mine No.3 at Yaojie.

Former Co-op shop at Ipswich. This building has been empty for some years and is due for demolition to be replaced by a new primary school. The project is currently stalled due to a 1960s mural at the rear of the building having been listed.

Discharging grain at the Royal Seaforth Dock in Liverpool. KAVO AETOS is a Bulk Carrier built in 2003 by Tsuneishi Heavy Industries (Cebu) Inc. as the BULK SCORPIO and is sailing under the flag of Marshall Islands. The length overall is 189.99 metres and width is 32.26 metres. The gross registered tonnage is 30,054 and deadweight 52,384.

An icy day on the Fushun Mining Railway. This system serves the opencast coal mine and associated industry in the city of Fushun, Liaoning Province. This is a typical level crossing in the urban area where the trackbed is used as a dump for much domestic rubbish. The line of ice parallel with both sides of the left track is cause by water dripping from coal wagons passing this way. The locomotive (617) heading the empty coal train is a 1500v DC electric which came to Fushun from the Maoming oil shale mine in c2001. It was built at the Xiangtan Electric Locomotive Factory, Hunan, in 1988.