tarboat's photos with the keyword: leicestershire

Terracotta on the frontage of the former No.1 Branch of the Loughborough Co-operative Society. The Co-operative movement was a big user of terracotta in the early 20th century.

This blast furnace was built for the Earl of Moira in 1804 to smelt iron using locally available iron ore and coal coverted to coke. The site is adjacent to the Ashby Canal for transport of finished products. Whilst brought into blast in 1806 and operated intermittently until 1811 the furnace was not a success and was abandoned with a charge still partly smelted inside. The adjacent foundry continued until 1844 using imported iron and was demolished in the later 19th century. The bridgehouse and the blowing engine house, which was a separate building to the side of the furnace, were converted to dwellings and survived. By the 1970s they had become derelict and affected by mining subsidence and the engine house was demolished. The furnace and bridgehouse were saved after pressure from historian Philip Riden and Leicestershire Industrial History Society. The site is now scheduled as an ancient monument and the site and museum within the buildings are operated by the Moira Furnace Museum Trust.

Bardon Hill Quarry produces around 3 million tonnes of granite per year and is operated by Aggregate Industries, a division of the Swiss cement manufacturer Holcim.

The Calcutta Pit was one of 5 collieries (pits) in Swannington. These gradually stopped being mined in the late 19th century. However, when pumping stopped in these pits, the water began to seep down into mines in the newly developing town of Coalville. In order to solve this problem, it was necessary to set up a Joint Pumping Company, at the former Calcutta mine to drain the whole new coalfield. The Calcutta pumping engine was made by Robert Stephenson and Co. It was capable of removing 54,000 gallons of water an hour. It was installed in 1877 at a cost of £13,000 and worked until 1947 when it was replaced with electric pumps. The building is listed Grade II and is now used as offices.

One of three terracotta panels over a shop in the Market Place at Loughborough.

Charnwood Forest Brick Ltd is a component of Michelmersh Brick Holdings PLC. The Company produced approximately 3 milion facing bricks and special shaped bricks per annum from its manufacturing base at Shepshed, near Loughborough. Hand made facing bricks are here being manufactured and placed on rail trollies to go to the dryer before firing.

The use has changed but the signs remain the same. This shop on King Street in Melton Mowbray now sells toys.

I reckon this used to be the Loughborough branch of Woolworths.

The corrugated iron buildings are the remains of the isolation hospital that was on the land at Turnwater Meadow adjacent to the junction of the Melton Mowbray Navigation with the River Soar Navigation.

The Calcutta Pit was one of 5 collieries (pits) in Swannington. These gradually stopped being mined in the late 19th century. However, when pumping stopped in these pits, the water began to seep down into mines in the newly developing town of Coalville. In order to solve this problem, it was necessary to set up a Joint Pumping Company, at the former Calcutta mine to drain the whole new coalfield. The Calcutta pumping engine was made by Robert Stephenson and Co. It was capable of removing 54,000 gallons of water an hour. It was installed in 1877 at a cost of £13,000 and worked until 1947 when it was replaced with electric pumps. The building is listed Grade II and is now used as offices.

Hoby Bridge over the River Wreake. This river formed part of the Melton Mowbray Navigation which from 1797 brought barges to Melton from the River Soar via twelve broad locks. Initially very profitable the navigation declined with the building of railways in the locality and was abandoned in 1877. There is an active society campaigning to preserve what remains and with a long term aim of restoring navigation to Melton Mowbray and even onwards to Oakham. This bridge has seen extensive restoration and is now in good condition.

The colliery at Snibston saw its first shaft sunk in 1833 by George Stephenson and partners. Closure came 150 years later in December 1983 and the site subsequently became part of the Snibston Discovery Museum. This week Leicestershire County Council announced that the museum would close and some of the land would be sold off for housing. Whether the preserved colliery buildings will survive is yet to be seen. The future of the mining artefacts stored here from various opencast sites is probably not good. :-(

Nissen huts keep appearing in obscure corners. These two were formerly workshops at Snibston Colliery in Leicestershire.

Lift bridge that once carried the Soar Lane Branch railway over the Soar Navigation at Leicester. This bridge was built in 1845 to replace an identical structure of 1833, It now stands outside the main exhibition building at Snibston Discovery Park.

Self-rescuers in the lamp room at Snibston Colliery. For the uninitiated, these are used to provide an oxygen supply in an emergency when the mine atmosphere becomes unbreathable. Hopefully you could find fresh air in the time (up to an hour) that one of these would work. Not pleasant to use, but could save your life.

The mines on Swannington Common operated in the 18th and 19th century on a small scale, and Califat Colliery was one of these. The local heritage trust have undertaken excavations of the remains and also erected a replica horse gin and headframe with the horse and driver seen here. It is all very well done and the area is well worth a visit.

Bardon Hill Quarry produces around 3 million tonnes of granite per year and is operated by Aggregate Industries, a division of the Swiss cement manufacturer Holcim.

This former Newcomen enginehouse close to the blast furnace at Moira has been dated to 1805 based on a dated beam within. It pumped the Furnace Pit before conversion to housing in the nineteenth century. It is listed Grade II.