Metal Industry

In 1922 Bampton Urban District Council embarked upon a programme of council house building. First to be built was the block of three semi-detached Nissen designed houses in Frog Street. They are barrel shaped and have galvanised roofs. They were built about the same time as Wembley Stadium and the Exhibition, and the first resident jokingly named them "Wembley Terrace", even to the point of using the name in his address. The name has stuck, but never officially. Nissen houses are rare, and these were Listed Grade II in July 1998.

This large Nissen hut at Penhale near Millbrook in Cornwall is not long for this world after many years of neglect. In spite of this it is still used by the farmer who owns it.

Since the closure of the Brymbo steelworks the remaining structures have been suffering from age and weather. Here the foundry roof shows signs of imminent collapse. In the background is the original blast furnace which was later used as a sand hopper for the foundry. Since this photograph was taken the foundry roof has been removed.

McKechnie Brothers Limited, metal merchants and producers of copper sulphate, titanium sponge and other materials, established their Widnes smelting works works in 1891. This administrative block on Ditton Road in Widnes dates from 1920 and now stands partly empty.

The new smelter at Namtu was constructed after the Second World War during which the old smelter was destroyed. It processed lead, silver, zinc and copper from the Bawdwin mines but has been out of use for some time. It was suggested that it would reopen in 2012 but I have not heard anything of this since my visit. The chimney in the background is at the end of a long flue from the smelter and is intended to carry the noxious fumes away from the works. The poisonous nature of these emissions is evident in the lack of vegetation on the hilltop.

Steelile, on a building at Keshcarrigan, Leitrim. The Irish Steel Company Ltd was based at Haulbowline, Cork and traded from 1939 to 2001. Steelile was registered as a trademark by the company in 1960.

Action under the furnaces at the Benxi steelworks. Photo courtesy of Tarboat junior.

Gasholder at the Saarstahl steelworks in Völklingen.

George Barnsley and Sons Ltd was founded in 1836. The firm specialised in manufacturing files and cutting tools for leather workers and shoe makers. In 1852 they moved to Cornish Works on Cornish Street in Sheffield. In 1944 the works was producing steel files, shoe and butchers knives. The works has been derelict for many years.

The Reading Room at Denver, near Downham Market in Norfolk, dates from 1903. The design is completely different from any other corrugated iron buildings that I have seen. It also has an add-on bin store.

Cooling towers at the Scunthorpe steelworks.

Prefabricated corrugated iron village hall at Carrutherstown, Dumfries & Galloway.

This old Nissen hut has been recently relocated to this location on a farm near Bere Alston.

A long flue leads to the chimney from the old lead/zinc smelter at Namtu, Myanmar. The lack of vegetation on the hillside around the chimney is a good indication of the heavy metal fallout.

M.A.N. waterless gasholder at the Saarstahl steelworks in Völklingen near Saarbrücken, in Saarland, Germany.

Casting plaques and signs in aluminium at the Dove Holes foundry of Leander Architectural.

Church of the Good Shepherd, Drury, Buckley, Flintshire. A nineteenth century mission church which is still in use.

Maker's mark on corrugated iron sheet in the roof of the locomotive shed at Threlkeld Quarry. I can't decipher this one and any suggestions will be very welcome.