35mm · Film photography · Photography

Abandoned bridge

The area close to where I live was once occupied by coal mining. The local colliery – Brookhouse Colliery – closed for good in 1985. While the colliery land has been re-purposed in the intervening years – much of it as a country park with large lakes where opencast workings once were – there is still plentiful evidence for it’s industrial past.

Abandoned bridge

In the area around the Trans-Pennine trail there is a network of railway lines, one still active for passenger and goods use, but the others now disused with the tracks and the other equipment removed. Their presence can be felt in the various cuttings and bridges that still remain though.

Beneath the abandoned bridge

Today’s images are of one of the surviving bridges – this one crossing the River Rother. Once, while exploring the surrounding area, I found myself atop this bridge and walked its length – a process that became significantly hastier when I noticed holes in the metal beneath my feet! I’ve not been atop the bridge since then, but there is a footpath that runs beneath it beside the river, which is where these were taken.

Abandoned bridge detail

Canon Sure Shot Telemax & Ilford Delta 400 – Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins

Taken on 4 April 2020

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

The Sportsman Inn

Sheffield, as with many cities, towns and villages in the UK, has a significant number of closed pubs. Whereas pubs in residential areas and the city centre still survive (and thrive) – either due to footfall, location, or by adapting to changing tastes and becoming family orientated pub-restaurants – in places that were once centres of heavy industry, they haven’t fared so well.

The east-end of Sheffield was once carpeted with steel foundries, engineering firms, and manufacturing industry. While this is still the case to some extent, much of the heavy industry has gone and with it the huge numbers of workers keen to slake their thirst after their shifts came to an end.

The decline in this industry has also changed the residential makeup of the surrounding areas. Row upon row of terraced houses that used to house the workers and their families have now either been demolished, of are now inhabited by new generations less inclined to spend their leisure time in public houses. As a result of this, huge numbers of pubs in the area have been closed or re-purposed.

The picture today is of the Sportsman Inn, which is on Blackburn Road in Sheffield. The pub was acquired by Gilmours in 1906, so probably dates back earlier than that. The facade staes 1919, but that is apparently when the pub was rebuilt (perhaps after bomb damage during the first world war?). The pub probably closed sometime in the last five years as the WhatPub site last updated it’s page in 2016, when the pub appeared to be still trading.

FILM - The Sportsman Inn

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 23 December 2019

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

A somewhat weathered trolley

I don’t really have a lot to say about today’s photo. I spotted this abandoned shopping trolley as I was walking back towards Meadowhall after my canal-side walk that I posted about yesterday. It was stuck in the bushes at the edge of this small Tarmac covered area and covered in dirt. I moved it into the clear to get the photo (I returned it back to it’s home in the bushes afterwards though. Unfortunately, and to my dismay,  getting some of the afforementioned dirt on my hands in the process).

The Holga’s lo-fi look works well, I feel.

FILM - Feeling dejected

Holga 120N and Kodak Tmax 400 (expired).

Taken on 22 September 2019