tarboat's photos with the keyword: adlington

Originally known as the Adlington Mission Church, St John's church on Brookledge Lane, Adlington, Cheshire is also known as the tin tabernacle. It was built in 1892 at a cost of £150 with the kit probably supplied by Francis Norton & Co., Liverpool. The walls are corrugated iron, lined with pitch pine. The vestry came as an optional extra and has since been extended. The church originally had a small spire which housed a single bell. At a later date the spire was dismantled and the bell was moved to its current turret above the porch.

Whilst out and about I found this hairy beast wandering around the edge of a copse. It is the caterpillar of the Pale Tussock Moth ( Calliteara pudibunda ) and was looking for a place to pupate. The actual moth is rather less eyecatching.

I love to see terracotta ornamentation and was delighted to spot this pair of ridge dragons on a house in Adlington.

There are just a few remains around USAAF Station 571 at Poynton, Cheshire, adjacent to the now defunct Woodford Airfield. This is a sanitary block type B, flanked by anti- tank cylinders of which there are many dotted around the site. The site was occupied by United States personnel from July 1942, and was used as a dispersal area for stores from Burtonwood AAF 590. The site is now an industrial estate.

Photographs of the Macclesfield Canal showing working boats are scarce and I have been seeking a view of a boat associated with the fireclay traffic for some time. The best I have managed so far is this newspaper photograph from 1934 which was taken from Sugar Lane bridge in Adlington looking toward the Clarence Mill in Bollington. If you look closely at the canal near to the chimney it appears that there is a boat there, probably bringing in coal for the boilers. Nearer to the camera is a boat at the wharf for the Clarence fireclay mine operated by John Hall & Son (Dukinfield) Limited which supplied their works in Dukinfield with up to six 18 ton boatloads of clay per week. Clay, and a small amount of coal, was brought from the mine off in the fields to the left in tubs and tipped down chutes into the boat. The boat is most likely to be named "Benefactor" as this was a regular on this run at the time. The mine closed in 1938.

I walked the dogs along the canal towpath today but there were no boats moving as the cut was frozen over. The ice had been broken by a boat a day or so ago, but the channel was now well frozen.

The weathered lettering carved into the parapet of Bridge 25 at Whiteley Green on the Macclesfield Canal recalls a long-forgotten tragedy. I consulted the Macclesfield Courier and Herald for Saturday June 30th 1894 and the full story soon emerged. Walter Brindley was a 25 year old journeyman baker and married man who had worked for Joseph France on Park Lane in Macclesfield for five years. Esther Pickford was a 29 year old single mother of three who was working as a domestic servant to Mr France. These two had apparently been walking out together for some time, in spite of his being married. They had been seen together in pubs and at Butley, and it was inevitable that this would come to the attention of Mrs Brindley who, naturally, was not amused and went to the bakery to confront them. Neither would speak to her and that evening he went to his house on Knight Street, turned Mrs Brindley out and moved in his companion Esther Pickford. This action so infuriated the neighbours that a melee broke out, with the house windows being broken and the blinds etc pulled down. The next day (June 20th) there was further public disorder and the police had to find Esther Pickford shelter in a court off Park Lane. Later that day the couple were seen together in Bollington and then vanished. Two days later a boatman found their bodies in the canal at Whiteley Green. Their wrists were tied together with a cloth. Their bodies were taken to the nearby Windmill Inn. The whole sad story was told at the inquest, where the jury entered a verdict of "Found Drowned".

Coal mining in Adlington was on a smaller scale than Poynton due to there being fewer seams available. The industry flourished during the nineteenth century and in the 1830s after the opening of the Macclesfield canal there was a surge in development of workings to the east of the present marina. This shaft may be that of the Pilot Pit which in 1838 was worked with a 5hp steam engine in a wooden engine house. There was also a horse gin on site.

Early railway relics from the Cheshire coalfield. The lightweight plate at the top is from Poynton Collieries and may date from the late 1830s. The lower fragment was used on a line running from the Nelson Pit in Adlington. In neither place have any stone blocks been found and it may be that the lines were laid on wooden sleepers.

It is always worth looking out for industrial remains, even in the most rural of areas. Here is an example of what is probably eighteenth century coal mining in a field between the Middlewood Way and the Macclesfield Canal at Higher Doles Farm in Adlington. There were two shafts here and it appears that the spoil from the development works was mainly raised from that on the right, and now with trees and bushes growing from it. The second shaft is marked by the low mound to the left. Examination of the site suggests that there is evidence of a horse gin circle on the ground between the shafts. A look at the geological map for the area suggests that these workings may have been seeking the much sought after 'Big Smut' seam although the first seam marked as outcropping to the east is the 'Bullion' mine and this was only a few inches in thickness.

Originally known as the Adlington Mission Church, St John's church on Brookledge Lane, Adlington, Cheshire is also known as the tin tabernacle. It was built in 1892 at a cost of £150 with the kit probably supplied by Francis Norton & Co., Liverpool. The walls are corrugated iron, lined with pitch pine. The vestry came as an optional extra and has since been extended. The church originally had a small spire which housed a single bell. At a later date the spire was dismantled and the bell was moved to its current turret above the porch.

Originally known as the Adlington Mission Church, St John's church on Brookledge Lane, Adlington, Cheshire is also known as the tin tabernacle. It was built in 1892 at a cost of £150 with the kit probably supplied by Francis Norton & Co., Liverpool. The walls are corrugated iron, lined with pitch pine. The vestry came as an optional extra and has since been extended. The church originally had a small spire which housed a single bell. At a later date the spire was dismantled and the bell was moved to its current turret above the porch.

Styperson Pool and dam seen from Sugar Lane, Adlington. The orange colour is dead bracken in the low sunlight. When viewed large you can see that there is just a touch of snow on the hill above Bakestonedale.

The Breck Quarry in Adlington had a long history. Certainly working in the early nineteenth century, it continued to operate until the 1930s but has since laid derelict and reverting to nature. In the 1830s paving stones were shipped from here to Stockport via the Macclesfield Canal to High Lane and then by cart down the turnpike road that is now the A6.

Ok, so I had a play with this one in Photoshop. I went on search of 18th century colliery remains yesterday afternoon and whilst stood in a field in Adlington this tree was crying out to be photographed. When I got the thing on screen the image looked dull and uninteresting so it became a candidate for some serious tinkering. It may not be as 'in real life' but I quite like the result as it is close to what I had in mind when I first saw the tree.

John Hall Ltd. of Dukinfield mined coal, fireclay and shale from 1911 to 1937 at a mine in the fields close to the Clarence Mill in Bollington. The shale which when fired turned red was used to make chimney pots, tiles and drain pipes. This is the entrance to the adit which led to a shaft situated higher up the hill and allowed the loaded tubs to be brought out to the canal wharf hauled by a horse. The adit entrance and shaft are actually just in Adlington.