• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

CONGRATULATIONS TO MORTURN PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

Astoness

TRUE BRUMMIE MODERATOR
Staff member
hi folks i am sure you will also want to congratulate mort on recieving the

Local Historic Photographer of the Year – Sandfields Pumping Station award

below is morts narrative and winning photograph along with the narrative...mort i know this is a subject close to your heart so very well done

lyn

Local Historic Photographer of the Year – Sandfields Pumping Station




The grade II* listed Sandfields Pumping Station is a forgotten hidden historic gem. Like most industrial heritage building, it’s familiarity in the landscape has eroded away the curiosity of the casual passer-by. Yet this Romanesque styled masterpiece is a cathedral to the industrial revolution, for years unloved, for years abandoned.



Its Romanesque style took the language from the past and built the way to the future. Celebrating new technology and progress, it bought life giving clean water to the beleaguered communities of the industrial Black Country, bringing health and wellbeing to all.



This building and its historic contents showcased the provision of clean water that seeded the developments that enabled Britain to become a modern industrial country. Britain lead the world in technical and scientific developments that have improved the quality of people’s lives worldwide and are a testament the vision of the Victorian engineers and their philanthropic endeavours.



Let us look at this building and remind ourselves of the tens of thousands of people who died in the cholera epidemics of the mid nineteenth century. Most of these unfortunate people were buried in mass graves or cholera pits, with no identity, dignity or recognition of their lives.



This building is a monument to their life, giving them back a voice that allows them to tell their remarkable story.



The heritage of the modern water industry is almost entirely absent, despite its unarguable relevance to human development.
 

Attachments

  • morts photo 2.jpg
    morts photo 2.jpg
    60.2 KB · Views: 86
It's a great photo, and even better for you because the award is of a photo of something you have worked so hard for
 
Nice atmospheric picture, like the lighting. After looking at it for a few minutes my mind seemed to see three giant hand pumps that would produce a good pint of real ale.
 
Big thank you to all of you for your kind words, they are much apricated. It is really history that fuelled my passion for photography and then vice versa, I do see photography as an opportunity to engage with the past and also to help record social change, as we see so often one this site.

Here are a few more I took at this particular place.

Sandfields-Ghost-Night-Oct-19_0303.jpg
 

Attachments

  • Sandfields-Ghost-Night-Oct-19_0309.jpg
    Sandfields-Ghost-Night-Oct-19_0309.jpg
    60.2 KB · Views: 21
  • Sandfields-Ghost-Night-Oct-19_0312.jpg
    Sandfields-Ghost-Night-Oct-19_0312.jpg
    66.4 KB · Views: 21
  • Sandfields-Ghost-Night-Oct-19_0318.jpg
    Sandfields-Ghost-Night-Oct-19_0318.jpg
    100 KB · Views: 22
Back
Top