tarboat's photos

Sinking Annesley Colliery commenced in January 1865 with two 13ft diameter shafts reaching the Top Hard seam at a depth of 420 yards in 1867. During the First World War the shafts were deepened to the Deep Soft/Deep Hard seams at 580 yards. It became part of the Annesley-Bentinck complex in April 1988 and the early 1990s saw record output from the Blackshale seam. Despite being highly profitable it was put on care and maintenance in 1994 and was restarted having passed to Coal Investments in 1995. That company went into liquidation in 1996 and from then until closure it was operated by Midlands Mining Limited. Demolition was well underway when I photographed the No.2 headstocks over the upcast shaft in 2008.

At the back of the upcast shaft and coal screening plant at Thoresby Colliery just one week before closure.

Sheffield 74 was originally built as an open-topped tram by the Electric Railway and Carriage Company based in Preston in 1900. From 1922 to 1951 it operated at Gateshead after extensive rebuilding. After service as a garden shed the tram was restored at the Crich Tramway Museum and entered service there in 1995.

JS 6544 earns its keep at the head of the morning mixed train on the Yuanbaoshan Coal Railway as it heads for the mine at Fengshuigou. The empty coal wagons were at the rear.

Chinese repurposing at its best. The cab of JF class No. 508 outside the maintenance workshops of the Fuxin Mining Administration.

The art deco Montague Burton clothing shop on the corner of Grafton Street and Stamford New Road, Altrincham, was completed in 1936. Having fallen on hard times it was acquired by independent furnishing business Ferrious and has since been restored to its former glory.

Three limekilns at the Lhoist operated Rheinkalk Werk Hönnetal, Oberrödinghausen. One rotary kiln and a pair of Maerz type kilns. Around 200 people currently work in the quarry, kilns, processing plant, and in administration. Approximately 800,000 tons of quicklime and around 900,000 tons of unburnt limestone products are produced annually.

The Viterra grain silos at the port of Wallaroo on the Spencer Gulf are connected to this jetty by conveyors and can load ships with wheat or barley at 600 tonnes per hour.

Ruston & Hornsby 191658 of 1938 on the field railway at Apedale. This locomotive once operated on the system serving the Friden works DSF Refractories.

Letterhead for Ackers, Whitley and Company Limited, Bickershaw Collieries, Leigh, Lancashire. The signature is that of the manager F H Wilson. In 1931 the colliery employed 1,549 underground and 338 on the surface.

With temperatures hovering around -40C the opencast coal mine at Jalainur was filled with the exhaust steam from the fleet of SY class locomotives that worked there.

Abandoned light industrial premises dated 1903 in terracotta on Ludgate Hill in the Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham.

Appleby coke ovens at Scunthorpe steelworks. This battery comprised 66 Otto-Simon Carves ovens which were started in 1990. These were abandoned in 2023 leaving the works dependent on imported coke.

Sutton Manor Collieries Limited was floated in 1904 to bore for and work coal on the Sutton Manor Estate. Shaft sinking commenced in 1906 with No.1 shaft initially reaching 1824 feet and the No.2 shaft completed to 2342 feet. At the time of this lettter the colliery was working eight different seams. The shafts were later deepened and a further eight seams worked before closure in 1991.

Conveyor beneath the coal washing and screening area at Ayle Colliery. This is the last full-time colliery operating in England.

SY 0206 leads a train of acid tanks out of the yard at Baiyin Gongsi. This railway serves copper and lead mining and processing industries.

Disused building at the perimeter of the ArcelorMittal Steelworks at Differdange in Luxembourg. This works uses electric arc furnaces to produce beams, bars and heavy sections. It has a worldwide reputation for wide flange beams.

The Klondyke Works were built in 1899 in the village of Newhall in South Derbyshire with Bretby Brick & Stoneware Company being formed in 1909. Brick production ceased in the 1930s but the company carried on manufacturing stoneware items including sanitary ware and finally concentrated on stoneware pet bowls until final closure in 1995.