Any industrial history enthusiasts here?
- Thread starter Harvestman
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That's a brilliant link! There's whole worlds in there, I can see me spending a lot of time over there. Thanks a lot for this one
Me too, We have lots in Cornwall.
Nowadays its a boring natural paradise...
A friend told me of a project one day in the Redruth area. They were on Can Brea, the big hill there, and round and about were the engine houses. Each engine house had a team and a pile of straw. At a given time, they lit the straw to give the impression of a working engine...Must have heen a sight to see!
I have found a Cornish shovel so I am ready when they re open the mines.
Nowadays its a boring natural paradise...
A friend told me of a project one day in the Redruth area. They were on Can Brea, the big hill there, and round and about were the engine houses. Each engine house had a team and a pile of straw. At a given time, they lit the straw to give the impression of a working engine...Must have heen a sight to see!
I have found a Cornish shovel so I am ready when they re open the mines.
If you're into mines and mineral processing, my only real interests in industrial history, then Lakes and Yorkshire are great places to live near, which I do. Hawes has a restored lime kiln on a path up from the carpark. Near Appletreewick IIRC there's paths through a landscape of lead mines and spoil heaps that give up Galena samples. A mate once found a big sample of purest Cumbrian graphite. He showed me where on a walk but we found nothing. Takes luck and the right knowledge sometimes.
You can keep your weaving, brickworks and transport history, it's mining and mineral processing history that's my thing.
I've been round a modern quarry and limestone processing plant, stood over a powerful rock jawcrusher, stepped over a stream of tapped off dross from a blast furnace, round a steelworks. I've been down an old lead mine somewhere near Pateley Bridge, seen the man-made drill holes. Heard the stories of father and older son hitting the drill with sledge hammers while a younger son turns it a quarter turn between hits. If the kid is too slow he gets his wrists smashed by the hammer. How the women sorted or dressed the ore and the family getting paid for the good, dressed ore produced. As a family unit down the mine and in the dressing house. Jeez those old mines are black in a level of blackness not seen above ground.
You can keep your weaving, brickworks and transport history, it's mining and mineral processing history that's my thing.
I've been round a modern quarry and limestone processing plant, stood over a powerful rock jawcrusher, stepped over a stream of tapped off dross from a blast furnace, round a steelworks. I've been down an old lead mine somewhere near Pateley Bridge, seen the man-made drill holes. Heard the stories of father and older son hitting the drill with sledge hammers while a younger son turns it a quarter turn between hits. If the kid is too slow he gets his wrists smashed by the hammer. How the women sorted or dressed the ore and the family getting paid for the good, dressed ore produced. As a family unit down the mine and in the dressing house. Jeez those old mines are black in a level of blackness not seen above ground.
My grandfather used to tell stories of using massive steam hammers used for pounding iron and steel to crack walnuts, so fine was the control the men had over them.
That's a brilliant link! There's whole worlds in there, I can see me spending a lot of time over there. Thanks a lot for this one
http://www.ukurbex.com/ another one for you.
xylaria
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
http://www.thepotteries.org/photos/short_st/
You might like this place its off normacot road on the longton side of the a50. I hope the toffee factory is still there it smelt lovely. Peculiar fact the pot bank on normacot road hudson and something is same hudson family that spawned slash the guitarist.
I've got a Stevenson of Paisley ginger beer bottle, family name and home town, used to dig a few bing sites and had bottles from local area.
Story below,
http://paisleyonline.co.uk/html/paisley_snail.html
Story below,
http://paisleyonline.co.uk/html/paisley_snail.html
xylaria
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Cool I really like that type of history. My grandmother lived in newport gwent, we used walk past the chartist mural every time we visited. Our ancestors put up with some really grim conditions and fought to change them so we dont have to.
Used to live near lead mines when I was a kid and consequently have an interest in that sort of thing.
Went to Grassington chimney a while ago with one of my brothers and the flues there are a sight to behold. The smelting furnaces are a long distance from the chimney and are connected by very long flues which allow the gasses to condence and the materials they want to be collected. It increases the efficiency of the smelt.
These are a couple I took there
Looking into the flue and towards the chimney.
Inside the flue.
Looking up the chimney.
Someone else has done a good site about these kind of places seen from the air, great photography on it.
Looking on the urbex site for the places in Cumbria it looks like I've already visited most of them.
Derelict places is pretty good and Geograph deserves a mention also
Went to Grassington chimney a while ago with one of my brothers and the flues there are a sight to behold. The smelting furnaces are a long distance from the chimney and are connected by very long flues which allow the gasses to condence and the materials they want to be collected. It increases the efficiency of the smelt.
These are a couple I took there
Looking into the flue and towards the chimney.
Inside the flue.
Looking up the chimney.
Someone else has done a good site about these kind of places seen from the air, great photography on it.
Looking on the urbex site for the places in Cumbria it looks like I've already visited most of them.
Derelict places is pretty good and Geograph deserves a mention also
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SOme excellent links posted in this thread. I will have to spend some time looking through them. Thanks.
Think I'll take a trip to Grassington. Forgot there was anything like that there.
there's a similar flue leading to Stang End on a spur of a hill in the Patterdale/ Glenridding area IIRC. I've explored that area decade or more ago. I got given a book called Rocky Rambles which was a series of geological walks with at least 2 mining related. It's been re-issued but looks more focused on being a kids book now. Still it had good info on two mining areas.
You know what my mega bucks fantasy is... An industrial history park at Coniston Coppermines or another Lakes mining area. Coniston would be best but the main idea is to educate people about industrial Cumbria. We truly need to get people to understand the Lakes might be a national park now but it wasn't always, but it was a major mining area once. There is a tendency to protect NPs in aspic rather than being realistic and allow for development. People need jobs that pay to live there. A lot of ppl like friends of the lake district just believe it should be kept picture postcard and to hell with the true history of the area. We'll never get mining back at old levels but it still happens. There's quarries at Honster and Elterwater but there was once so much more. I for one would not be against small scale quarrying in the NP. I feel an industrial history heritage zone with the money to truly open what is there would help raise awareness that industry, as in winning, making and adding value to raw materials is needed in all economies for them to be stable. We can't be a service economy but need to have manufacturing and I think extraction industries too.
there's a similar flue leading to Stang End on a spur of a hill in the Patterdale/ Glenridding area IIRC. I've explored that area decade or more ago. I got given a book called Rocky Rambles which was a series of geological walks with at least 2 mining related. It's been re-issued but looks more focused on being a kids book now. Still it had good info on two mining areas.
You know what my mega bucks fantasy is... An industrial history park at Coniston Coppermines or another Lakes mining area. Coniston would be best but the main idea is to educate people about industrial Cumbria. We truly need to get people to understand the Lakes might be a national park now but it wasn't always, but it was a major mining area once. There is a tendency to protect NPs in aspic rather than being realistic and allow for development. People need jobs that pay to live there. A lot of ppl like friends of the lake district just believe it should be kept picture postcard and to hell with the true history of the area. We'll never get mining back at old levels but it still happens. There's quarries at Honster and Elterwater but there was once so much more. I for one would not be against small scale quarrying in the NP. I feel an industrial history heritage zone with the money to truly open what is there would help raise awareness that industry, as in winning, making and adding value to raw materials is needed in all economies for them to be stable. We can't be a service economy but need to have manufacturing and I think extraction industries too.
My job takes me to many old industrial sites. I am often there as old factories are torn down and quite often excavating to find out what is below ground as well. I would love to share all my pictures; I have thousands of oddities that I have come across; but there are confidentiality issues to consider. A lot of my sites get visited by the 28 days later people.
Here's one I can share. This was lurking in the brambles just yards from a public footpath. It shows a transitional technology: a steel chassis and springs, but wooden spokes for the wheels.
I love to see the work our forefather s left behind. IMHO Victorian engineers were intrepid and ingenious. They did not have our advantages, yet they built the wealth that we still live on.
I have always fought the temptation to start collecting bricks as they cant exactly be put away in a drawer! I may have to start a photographic record though, as what I see is usually interred below the new concrete and glass sheds.
I remember seeing an item on the local news about a guy who collected bricks and he was asked what the brick he most wanted to find was. Apparently, IIRC a brickworks in the midlands once laid off some of their staff but made them work out a months notice. The brick makers responded by altering the brick moulds so that the lettering in the frog spelled out rude words instead of the company name. The change wasnt immediately noticed and many of these bricks are still hidden in buildings around the midlands!
Z
Here's one I can share. This was lurking in the brambles just yards from a public footpath. It shows a transitional technology: a steel chassis and springs, but wooden spokes for the wheels.
I love to see the work our forefather s left behind. IMHO Victorian engineers were intrepid and ingenious. They did not have our advantages, yet they built the wealth that we still live on.
I have always fought the temptation to start collecting bricks as they cant exactly be put away in a drawer! I may have to start a photographic record though, as what I see is usually interred below the new concrete and glass sheds.
I remember seeing an item on the local news about a guy who collected bricks and he was asked what the brick he most wanted to find was. Apparently, IIRC a brickworks in the midlands once laid off some of their staff but made them work out a months notice. The brick makers responded by altering the brick moulds so that the lettering in the frog spelled out rude words instead of the company name. The change wasnt immediately noticed and many of these bricks are still hidden in buildings around the midlands!
Z
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This book might be of interest to you if you haven't already seen it.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stone-Steam...id=1418923179&sr=8-2&keywords=stone+and+steam
There's also a great geocaching trail in that valley that's based around all the hidden and abandoned houses, stuff you'd never see normally if you were just out walking up there.
here is another type of Black Country Blue Brick
for anyone interested here's a link on the Black Country brickmaking history
http://www.blackcountrybugle.co.uk/bricks-built-Black-Country/story-21066252-detail/story.html
for anyone interested here's a link on the Black Country brickmaking history
http://www.blackcountrybugle.co.uk/bricks-built-Black-Country/story-21066252-detail/story.html
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