Steetley Pier, Hartlepool, Northumberland
The infiltration of a new location and adventure for the STS started with the troops amassing from Worchester, Wigan and Manchester before setting off in convoy in the middle of the night across enemy borders and into friendlier territories that is Northumberland. Our first destination was Steetley Pier just north of Hartlepool. We arrived about 4am and attempted to get a couple of hours of shut-eye, but this was thwarted by one member who snored not only during this brief window of sleep but throughout the entire journey! I won’t mention any names… but he once won ‘Landscape Photographer of the Year’ - if you’re that inquisitive you’ve only 15 names to google.
Sunrise didn’t look that promising but we headed to the beach way ahead of the official sunrise time in the hope of making something out of the blue hour. To say I haven’t done much photography this year would be an understatement… in fact my equipment has remained untouched that my lenses had developed cataracts!
Initially I struggled to get anything to register on my rear screen (I don’t think my camera copes with low light conditions compared with newer models, but having said that, it was released in 2012). So, here’s my first image from the trip and only the third frame – it’s turned out far better than I thought when I looked at it back of camera.
Tags: Steetley Pier Hartlepool Northumberland pier magnesia treatment works coastal beach blue hour seascapes long exposure LE Andy Rouse andyrousephotography Canon 5DMkiii EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM
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Steetley Pier, Hartlepool, Northumberland
As it turned out, this was the only sunrise with any colour we saw throughout the four-day trip. It didn’t last long!
Tags: Steetley Pier Hartlepool Northumberland pier magnesia treatment works coastal beach sunrise seascapes Andy Rouse andyrousephotography Canon 5DMkiii EF17-40mm f/4L USM
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Steetley Pier, Hartlepool, Northumberland
Steetley Magnesite, also known as Hartlepool Magnesia Works and Palliser Works, was located at Hartlepool Headland.
Originally known as The Steetley Lime and Building Stone Company and was named after the small hamlet of Steetley which is located near Worksop, in Nottinghamshire. They owned a small dolomite quarry producing high quality building stone, some of which was used in the building of the Houses of Parliament.
New processes in the steel industry in the mid 18th century caused the company to change direction. A demand for stronger furnace linings made from dolomite helped secure Steetley’s future. It was discovered that dolomite could be converted into a hard burnt lime and became known as Dolime. Demand for Doloma increased rapidly and new sources for Doloma were required so the company bought up quarries up and down the country. By 1918 they were producing 100,000 tonnes a year. The demand due to the war efforts increased dramatically year on year and by the mid 1930’s they had either bought or merged with nearly every quarry or producer in the UK.
Working closing with the steel industry the company began looking at other opportunities. They knew that the steel industry was also using increasing quantities of refractory bricks made from calcined magnesite or magnesia but there was a problem – the UK has no natural deposits.
A new way had to be found to produce Magnesite. As the business prospered, funds became available for research and development and in 1936 the first research laboratory was built. One of its first jobs was to explore the possibility of releasing magnesia from dolomitic lime (Dolime) by reacting it with seawater.
It didn’t take long for their experiments to prove successful and in 1937 they acquired what’s now known as Steetley in Hartlepool – 24-acre’s of land on the coast and close to major steel works, rail and port infrastructure and just 15 miles from high purity dolomite deposits in Coxhoe and the Durham coalfields that provided fuel for the kilns. £10,000 was spent building what’s known as the Palliser Works – an experimental plant to see what could be achieved. Once it proved successful The British Periclase Company was drafted in to build and operate a full scale magnesite plant.
A year later saw the construction of a new plant at Hartlepool capable of 10,000-tonnes-a-year built, financed jointly by the company and the Special Areas Reconstruction Association. The product was sold and marketed as Britmag and when war broke out in 1939 Hartlepool was the only UK source of magnesia.
Reinvestment of profits saw major expansion in the early 1960’s, capacity was increased yet again, new settling tanks, a 2,000ft pier was built to provide fresh seawater to the plant. All of which helped the company to produce roughly 250,000 tonnes a year. Some of this was high quality grade Magnesia.
The Steetley company was finally bought out by Redland Plc in 1992. They ran the plant at Hartlepool for about five years until it was sold in 1997. The new company called Britmag could not compete and went into administration in 2002. The recession in the 1980’s made the company suffer, the declining steel industry and the closure of British Steel plants proved too much for them. But a solution was found to keep the plant open and the company CJC Chemicals was born. This proved to be short lived as they closed the plant in 2005.
The site was left partly demolished and the pier became a big attraction for local fishermen despite being incredibly unsafe and dangerous, a section was then removed to prevent anyone venturing out. The site owners and council also came under attack for leaving the rest of the site in such a dangerous way. In hot weather children could often be found swimming in the large tanks! These were then drained out into the sea.
Pioneering work carried out at the Hartlepool plant was the forerunner of many similar undertakings around the world based on the same chemical principles using either brines or sea-water reacted with Doloma or lime.
On July 29th at 11am the iconic 230ft Steetley chimney was raised to the ground.
Tags: Steetley Pier Hartlepool Northumberland pier magnesia treatment works coastal beach sunrise seascapes Andy Rouse andyrousephotography Canon 5DMkiii EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM
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Chemical Beach, Seaham, Northumberland
Our second location of the trip was the rusting wagon wheels at Chemical Beach near Seaham. These are only visible at a very low tide and for once our timing was spot on (great research by Mark as always). However, I think we all secretly thought that these were not particularly photogenic as they blended in amongst the barnacle covered rocks making compositions somewhat limited.
But wait a few hours for the tide to come back in and it’s a different story! It must have looked a comical sight to those walkers on the cliff tops looking down at six togs with tripods and wellies jostling for position around this rusting relic.
But the wait was well worth it and I’m sure everyone of us came away with a series of magical images as the tide came in. I’ve plenty to go at but here’s one I made earlier.
Tags: Chemical Beach Seaham Seaham Harbour Northumberland wagon wheels Chaldron Wagon coastal beach industrial seascapes long exposure LE Andy Rouse andyrousephotography Canon 5DMkiii EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM
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Bamburgh Beach, Northumberland
I think this is my fifth trip up to Bamburgh and as sunrise didn’t materialise, I went in search of something different…
These concrete blocks are situated near to the beach road parking bays. They are anti-tank blocks and can be found all along the east coast. These eight at Bamburgh have been painted over the years - there's a pair of dice right at the far end and my favourite... the good old Rubic's cube. However, inspiration must be lacking as they haven’t been updated since my last visit, apart from someone’s painted what looks like a cat’s face on the near block.
Tags: Bamburgh Bamburgh beach Bamburgh Castle castle Northumberland anti-tank blocks blocks concrete cubes war defences seascape sunrise Andy Rouse andyrousephotography Canon 5DMkiii EF17-40mm f/4L USM
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