Contributions of the group Industrial Archaeology

Ketton silos

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 09:08:24 +0000

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Cement silos at the Ketton cement works which was established by the Ketton Portland Cement Company in 1928. It is currently owned by Heidelberg.

Last days

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 05:49:46 +0000

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Rugeley 'B' power station was still generating for a few more weeks when I took this, but was finally switched off on June 9th, 2016. It was commissioned in 1970 and could generate around 1000 megawatts of electricity.

The passing Pendelino is the icing on the cake.

Pear Mill

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 09:01:19 +0000

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Construction of the Pear Mill in Stockport commenced in 1908. The building is typical of the architects A.H. Stott & Sons, and was designed by The mill was designed by Abraham Stott junior. Financial problems led to changes in management of the mill company and it was finally completed in 1913 by Philip Sidney Stott.

At its peak, the mill employed approximately 300 people to run 52 pairs of spinning mules with a total of 137,312 spindles. This remained until the 1950s when the mill was electrified and replaced by 33,636 ring spindles. It ceased operation as a textile mill in March 1978. Today it is a listed structure and divided into business units.

The mill is so named because it was built on the land of Pear Tree Farm. The building includes a number of decorative pears on the structure and as a dome on the tower.

Cemex, Dove Holes

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 10:53:18 +0000

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Dove Holes quarry is operated by Cemex and ships out vast quantities of limestone by road and rail. The quarry is an amalgamation of the earlier Holderness and Newline quarries both of which have been lowered to the water table. Recent developments have seen the quarry expand northwards into the Bee Low area. There is a large area of fixed plant for crushing and screening the stone. The stone is taken by conveyor from the tipping dock and primary crusher to a stockpile under the gantry at lower centre of the image.

Abandoned

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 05:53:14 +0000

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The long disused stone handling plant at Crich quarry. Opened by The Clay Cross Company in the 19th century and supplying limekilns near Ambergate via a metre gauge railway, the quarry closed in 1958. Reopening for roadstone occurred in the 1960's and it was operated by RMC and Tarmac before passing to Aggregate Industries ownership in 2000. Final closure came in 2010.

Cans

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 07:52:00 +0000

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Oil cans above the camshaft on a large M.A.N engine at the Anson Engine Museum.

Tank

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 08:30:36 +0000

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A few Furness Railway water tanks have survived along the Cumbrian Coast line. This one is alongside the crossing at Foxfield Station.

Flaybrick Tower

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Sun, 19 Jul 2026 10:14:23 +0000

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The Water Tower at Flaybrick Reservoir, Claughton, Wirral was built 1860-65. The water piped into this water tower travels from Alwen reservoir near Pentre-Llyn-Cymmer in Conwy County Borough, Wales by underground aqueduct. It is listed Grade II.

Brodsworth

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 06:24:06 +0000

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Brodsworth Colliery commenced when two shafts were sunk between October 1905 and 1907 in a joint venture by the Hickleton Main Colliery Company and the Staveley Coal and Iron Company. The Barnsley seam which was reached at a depth of 595 yards and was up to 9 feet thick and after a third shaft was sunk in 1923, Brodsworth, was the largest colliery in Yorkshire and had the highest output of a three-shaft colliery in Britain. The colliery was consistently amongst those that employed the most miners in Britain, employing around 2,800 workers throughout the 1980s. It closed in 1990 and the site has since been cleared.

Rye Waterworks

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 05:36:47 +0000

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This spot is the location of a well that supplied water to the town of Rye. In the 18th century there was a pump powered by horses but in 1869 the structure was rebuilt with a steam pump. By 1907 it had become used as a soup kitchen and following decades of various uses, it is now home to the award-winning Rye Waterworks Micropub and Microbrewery. The building is listed Grade II.

Donghaikuang Colliery

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 08:22:49 +0000

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Conveyor runs and associated coal processing buildings at Donghaikuang Colliery in the Jixi area of Heilongjiang, China. Judging by Google Maps all this has now been cleared away. Things change very fast in China.

Asphalt

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 05:38:03 +0000

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The tallest piece of fixed equipment at this year's Hillhead quarry exhibition was this asphalt plant from the Turkish manufacturer E-MAK that specialises in asphalt and aggregate plant.

Under the bunkers

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 05:44:03 +0000

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SY 0746 is under the loading bunkers at Donghaikuang Colliery at the end of a branch of the Jixi coal railways.

Kronospan

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 05:27:09 +0000

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Kronospan has been operating at Chirk since the 1970’s. The works originally made particleboard and melamine and now also produces MDF, T&G flooring for the building trade, laminate flooring and worktops. It is the longest established manufacturer of wood-based panels, and the only laminate flooring producer in the UK.

New timber is sourced in the UK and delivered by train and there is also use of reclaimed wood material

Gas terminal

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Sun, 21 Jun 2026 04:44:52 +0000

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This plant at Point of Ayr had a capacity to treat 8.5 million cubic metres (300 million cubic feet) per day at standard conditions of sour gas from offshore. The gas was brought ashore via a 51 centimetres (20 inches) diameter, 33 km long pipeline. The plant separates methanol (used for hydrate inhibition), water and condensate from the gas stream. The gas was sweetened with an amine solvent to remove sulphur compounds down to 3.3 ppm hydrogen sulphide and 35 ppm mercaptans. The hydrocarbon dew-point of the gas is reduced by mechanical refrigeration to a quality suitable for pipeline transportation. The treated gas was piped to Connah's Quay Power Station at 30 bar via a 27 km pipeline. Any gas surplus to the fuel requirements of the power station was further treated and delivered to the Burton Point terminal of the National Transmission System.

The site is owned by eni Liverpool Bay Operating Company Ltd, a subsidiary of eni UK Ltd. It was built near the site of a former colliery, which closed in August 1996. Approval for the site was given in February 1993, to be constructed by Hamilton Oil (of Denver, USA). BHP bought Hamilton Oil in 1991. The amount of gas to be brought onshore would be enough to provide electricity for half of Wales. Construction took place in 1994. eni bought BHP Billiton's interest in the Liverpool Bay Development in April 2014.

In 2026 the gas field is exhausted and the terminal is under demolition. The site is intended to be re-used as a terminal for carbon dioxide, piped from a number of sources (cement works in particular), which is to be injected into the strata of the Morecambe Bay gas field.

Flint face

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 14:35:56 +0000

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Fulking limekiln, West Sussex. This medium-sized draw kiln has a face fronted with flints.

Bell kiln

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 17:07:57 +0000

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Bell limekiln was built in the 1860s and was used until 1918. It retains the lime shed in front of the kiln to keep the product dry. In recent years it has seen significant restoration and the top now houses an observatory. It is grade II listed.

Wharton Lodge Works

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 08:27:48 +0000

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Colin Stewart Minchem, Wharton Lodge Works, Winsford. The company manufactures a range of speciality products based on bentonites and other minerals used in the Detergent, Oil Drilling, Coatings and many other related industries. The business currently trades as AMCOL Minerals Europe Ltd.

Gravel loader

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 16:59:37 +0000

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Attenborough sand and gravel pit was established in Nottinghamshire in the 1920s. Since then the pit has expanded up the Trent Valley in Nottinghamshire, and into Derbyshire. The extraction at the time (2009), operated by CEMEX UK Materials (Aggregates) Ltd, was undertaken almost 5km from the processing plant and material is moved across the flooded former workings with barges pushed by Bantam tugs.

The flooded pits form an extensive nature reserve which is managed by Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and Broxtowe Borough Council. Here an empty barge is arriving under the loader with the chimney and cooling towers of Ratcliffe power station in the background. This interesting water traffic seems to have ended in 2016 after exhaustion of the gravel reserves.

Unit 2

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 06:42:05 +0000

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Parsons built Generating unit No.2 at Ratcliffe power station. This had a rated output of 500 MW.