'Views in Camera, 2019'; Photographs taken during last 18 months which didn't make it to Flickr - 443Mby MP4 video

** This is a 28min video so has to be downloaded to see the full version as only 10 minutes are shown in the Flickr interface. This has recently been increased from the original 3 minutes to 10 minutes. Both Pro and non-Pro users now appear to have the same time limit in the Flickr Interface, however,

** to obtain the full version, right click this link and select 'Save Link As' to save the file to the desktop.

www.rail.tightfitz.com/Video/Views-in-Camera-3.mp4

 

Other than identifying all the locations, Section Three being a summary only, of the many shots taken throughout the period whilst the other sections have a more detailed folio of work for the location in question. This video, long though it is, was really all I could think of to do with the 400 pictures identified during the last year and a half or so. None of the pictures have been posted before but a few are supplementary shots taken at the same time as the one which made it to Flickr.

 

1. Skegness Beach, August 2017. Myself and the 2nd youngest and oldest of the 4 boys, Oscar, Casper, Otis and Finley, oldest to youngest. and all lovely boys, a pleasure to have them around; though I don't have to get up at 06:30 for the two youngest ones.! This sequence was taken, partially, to allow presentation of a 'Then & Now' piece, which has been shown already, here-

www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/36081614983/

The past picture from 1971 and showing approximately the same view as the 4th in this 1st section of shots.

 

2. Neepsend Area, February 2019. A winter-time walk around the Neepsend area to photograph some of the iconic locales and buildings and the redevelopment which continues apace in the area. Some of this material was also used in another set of 'Then & Now' pieces, this time the past pictures being provide by Adrian Wynn and featured in his 'Sheffield' book, published by Pickard Communication, the Flickr pieces are here-

www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/25279094207/

here-

www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/25279096327/

and a third example-

www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/26277495298/

 

3. Various. January 2018-May 2019. Bluebell Way and Children's Hospice at Dinnington, Parkgate graffiti, Shalesmoor, Chapeltown-GC signal, Storrs Bridge Lane, Morehall/GC line, Westthorpe Runaround-1, Masbrough Steam, Broomhead Reservoir, Oughtibridge after fire, Bridlington Station, Lock Lane-Tinsley, Parkgate canal & Bunnings, Kilnhurst freight, Spurn Point lighthouses, Heacham Station, Spurn beach, Whitby Station & Steam & Sandsend, Aldwarke Lock & Oil Barge, Deltic at Welwyn, Primrose Bridge, Brookhouse Viaduct, Templeborough DBS, Bridlington Hotel & girl, Robert Jenkins demolition, Chapeltown GC Station, Autumn Moon over Woodhead line, Westthorpe Runaround-2, Deepcar & new bridge-1, Masbrough tramway coal wagon, Orgreave GCR bridge, 25 Ferham Road, Samuel Fox/Liberty Steel Stocksbridge, Oughtibridge Paper Mill demolition, Broomhead Reservoir, Holmes West Sidings, GCR Station platform Chapeltown, Derwent House front gate, Ecclesfield railway foot-crossing graffiti, Masbrough freight and pushchair, Woodhouse Sidings, Bridlington bench, Bamford platform & old Ladybower bridge, Templeborough Tram/Train Lock Lane bridge, 37610 Test Train Woodhouse Sidings, Steel Street & Canal Holmes Junction, Deepcar Station & new river bridge-2, Staveley Canal basin development, Freight on the NER at Carnaby, Killamarsh Freight and Adrian Wynn, old Middlewood Union Carbide electrode factory, Deepcar Station & new bridge-3, Beighton Station X'ing, Brightside Test Train, Ecclesfield new footbridge, Flamborough cliffs & lighthouse, Carnaby 'Pepper Pot' listed folly, Penistone Engineering weekend, Kilnhurst HST move, Brightside steam approaches, Mill Race Attercliffe & 'Flying Scotsman' passage, old Derwent Village bridge location, Attercliffe Station & 'Tornado' passage, Ecclesfield footbridge & 'Tornado' passage, Bridlington Spa & Harbour, Bridlington Station & Semaphores, Bempton Station on the NER, Bempton Cliffs Puffins & other seabirds, Sewerby Park Balloon fest & cliffs, Hilderthorpe UK Basketball Tournament, Botsford Street in Neepsend.

 

4. New Morehall Sewage Station, & Paper Mill clearance January & May 2019.

January-----

Some heavy engineering work has been progressing on Manchester Road at Morehall, to build a new sewage treatment facility between the main road and the River Don and just a few hundred metres from the line up to the Stocksbridge Steelworks from Woodburn Junction. The treatment plant north of here at Deepcar, is then to be closed and demolished and that space and much of the surrounding area around the old GCR Deepcar Station site is to be developed by 'Bloor' into new housing estate. Last year, a large pipe was laid in the road between Deepcar and Morehall, and this work went on utilising one-way traffic for segments of the route, during most of the work. However, a 'complete line possession' was instigated over the 6 weeks of the school summer holidays last year, and the road was completely closed from Morehall to Deepcar to allow the work to be finished as a large section of the line of the pipe went along the middle of the road. Its not difficult to determine what this new pipe will be carrying from the Deepcar end 2km away to the north, the pipe now buried beneath Manchester Road, the output from the old and new works is clear water deemed fit for pumping back into the now pristine River Don. At this time, early January this year, the Wharncliffe Arms pub was then still open, as shown, but this didn't last much longer as the subsequent pictures, taken 4 months later, show the pub closed, put up for sale and sold. The area of land to the south of the new Sewage Treatment plant and commencing just to the rear of the Wharncliffe Arms pub, is the old Oughtibridge Paper Mill site and the following shots show the state of play in January with most of the buildings now reduced to just a few metres above ground level. The work being undertaken in the foreground of the first few shots, shows a 'Kobelco' blue excavator and its yellow and grey partners, and the work is related to the excavation for the base of the new river crossing bridge which will go in here and will then be the 2nd of the 2 new river crossings above the ancient one at Oughtibridge. At this time, the Wharncliffe Wood deciduous trees in the background, are without leaf, though some of the coniferous varieties remain green; the Stocksbridge Rail line, the old electrified Woodhead route of course, is just a short way up the hill about 2/3rds the way down below the line of pylons. Towards the end of the 1st section there are shots of the old Paper Mill river bridge, still extant and single track, once the new bridge is finished presumably this will be removed and there will then be a much more convenient access into Wharncliffe Wood, though I'm not sure this is a good or bad thing.

May-----

Returning to the site in May this year, with the weather warmer and the greenery more rampant, the first 3 shots show that the Wharncliffe Arms pub has been closed, put up for sale and by this time carried a SOLD sign on its 'Fore Sale' board. The pub board outside describes a little of the history of the pub and why its called the Wharncliffe Arms. At the time of preparing this text, June 15th, the pub remains much as it has since the earlier picture was taken, the Paper Mill site however has now changed completely, that is, its now almost cleared to ground level. Work has progressed on the supports for the new bridge over the River Don with two large reinforced caissons now built for the new bridge deck; the old, single-track bridge can be seen just behind it to the right. Most of the material which was on the site in January has been pummelled up into rubble for use elsewhere and the pictures in this section show how far the work has progressed. The Paper Mill site, like the site around Deepcar Station and the soon-to-be decommissioned sewage works close to it, will then be re-developed for upto 345 houses, though access, services and communication routes don't appear to be figuring in all this; Manchester Road is not the best of accesses into the northern part of Sheffield at the best of times... The River Don flows through the middle of it all and continues on to Oughtibridge alongside the site and the road on the right-hand side. The River Don flooded badly in July 2007 and brought the water up over the road bridge deck at Oughtibridge, something which ultimately resulted in 18 months engineering work on the bridge, to provide extra concrete strengthening, the work requiring periodic closures of the bridge which during almost all of the time resulted in single lane only operation; all the houses immediately next to the River were flooded.

 

5. Derwent, Agden & Broomhead Reservoirs, January 2019. Some winter shots and creative processing in a rather bland time of the year, with the short days meaning not many hours of light. This short section of 8 pictures show the scene at looking north at Derwent Reservoir on a particularly still day with the clouds rolling on over the hills threatening rain or snow.. Some filtering experimentation follows using the bare trees alongside the walk along Agden Reservoir, heading towards the parish of Bradfield, not far from where I live.

 

6. Sandersons Works area Attercliffe, February 2019. Just a month later and a visit to the large area of land around Attercliffe which was once home to the Sanderson Steel Works. It has seen a variety of uses since Sandersons closed with much activity on the large site occuring not long ago, see-

www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/17634321318/

and some background information-

'...It will be also noted that 3 lines also crossed Stevenson Road and went into some of the works on its right. The uppermost of these, recently occupied by a car tyre recyclers, but now vacant, was the Sanderson Steel Works, some background information-

'...1879 Records left by members of the firm who went out to Syracuse are still in existence. These show that a number of alloy tool steels were already being made by Sandersons both in Sheffield and America at that early date. The steels included 1.0 per cent, carbon, 1.5 per cent manganese steel of the Pitho Non-Shrink type, and a 22 per cent tungsten steel with a substantial chromium content similar to the present Kerau Wunda high-speed steel. This is termed a "self-hardening steel" in the record but it is far removed from the self-hardening steels as originally developed which had much lower tungsten. It is clear that, even in those days, Sandersons were well to the forefront in the search for improved tool steels...'

 

There is also a 'Then & Now' piece, using, once more, a picture provided by Adrian Wynn from 2009, to show the changes in the fortunes of the bridge area over the river, the bridge carrying a single line into what is now the European Metal Recyclers and Cemex Cement Works, see-

www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/17819302492/

Towards the end of the shots in this section shows the scene near Newhall Bridge and behind that, Sheffield Forgemasters with one or two of the still extant, 'heavy-metal' buildings prominent in the shots. Walking back along the river from Newhall in the middle of February, the scene had a somewhat feel of the 1970s/80s and this area does tend to accommodate, as Adrian Wynn put it, a definite feel, smell and view of operations as they would have been when this area was at the height of its productivity; this being particularly so along the East Coast, Faraday & Washwood Rd. area near the River.

 

7. Riverside area, Sheffield, March 2019. This section, along with the last two, form the core of shots taken in the last few weeks around the Wicker/Riverside area in Sheffield, here and following on after the next section, the Broomhall area near Hanover Way just west of Midland Station. The incentive to photograph these areas was taken from viewing the excellent work by Adrian Wynn, on his now fully developing blog, 'Prosaic Landscapes', see-

www.adrianwynn.co.uk

where the three areas re-visited here, are given full voice, in 3 of the sections in Adrian's historic narrative. There is little point in my trying to add anything further to what is said there, only to say that the pictures provided much encouragement to go and take a contemporary look and view what was now to be seen in the 'Fire and Water: An Upper Don Walk, March 2019' and 'Broomhall: Slight Return, Jan 2019' pieces; some of the pictures dating back 30 years or so. The 3 sections here relate to the 2nd, 3rd & 4th, Riverside, Kelham & Neepsend parts of his 'Fire & Water' piece and section 9 to his 'Broomhall' piece, published in January this year. I encourage anyone interested in the historical context to sit with a glass or two of something and read through Adrian's blog, its well worth it.

 

8. Orgreave Site/Waverley housing development, April 2019. The site of the old Orgreave Coking works has long since been devoid of the old works and it is now the Waverly Country PArk and, at the north-west side, a large, 4000-unit housing estate. The 5 shots in this section show the view from the road which runs between Catcliffe and ORgreave, the latter the site of the 'war' between police and miners in 1984. Now, 35 years on, things have changed and the place is now surrounded by technology firms, a large Morrisons Supermarket and other businesses and soon there estate will be complete and around 10,000 or more people will live here and be able to enjoy the now open parkland and water areas running alongside both the North Midland's 'Old Road' and the the River Rother, on the eastern side. The 1st couple of shots, taken in early April this year, show the view from the top of the site near Orgreave Lane bridge, which crosses the GCR's old Lincoln Line from Sheffield and through to Worksop and Lincoln. The large stone forms a monument for the Orgreave Site and which reads-

'Dedicated to the Workers of Orgreave Colliery, 1851 - 1981'

The type of housing available, almost all of that seen here is already occupied, varies from detached, semi-detached, flats, terraced and, for some bizarre reason, a hark back to the awful 'back-to-back' style, prevalent as a very cheap form of housing, and rife in the filthy slums of past decades, and long gone I had thought... but no, the site boasts that housing, conceived of in 1838, may well be good enough for the present generation..

 

9. Broomhall area, Sheffield, May 2019.

See section 7 above...

 

10. Neepsend, Wardsend & Owlerton, Sheffield May 2019.

See section 7 above...

Done