Howard Town Mills, Glossop

I went to look around Glossop to look for some sites to photograph and develop some ideas of how my images might look for this assignment.

As I was unsure about access, I did not take a tripod and other kit but planned to re-visit if this seemed suitable for some of the images I was looking for.

I chose a stretch of Glossop Brook, in the centre of the town where it runs through the site of the old Howard Town Mills. This was a large area of cotton mills, now disused and being re-developed as retail area, hotels, and bars. The extent of these can be seen in the OS Map of 1924:

I found that I could get into the site of the derelict mills at the East end of the site and found these images of drosscapes.  These were not what I was looking for, but I think are interesting images in their own right.

More in keeping with my project are these:

I am pleased with these images. I think they show an apparently rural scene, however on looking carefully the remnants of the industrial past can be seen – mill walls and pipelines in the river bed. I think they show the power of nature to reclaim our derelict industrial sites.

My plan is to revisit this site with a tripod and polarising filter as I think a higher image quality can be achieved.  I would like to use a long exposure to alter the quality of the depiction of the water, and the polarising filter will show detail on the pipeline better.