Mills in Manchester Archives - notquitelight.com

04 Jul 2016

oldfield road salford cow lane beetham tower

COW LANE, SALFORD 3.06AM -4.15AM

COW LANE, SALFORD 3.14AM – 4.15AM The turning point of the year, the Longest Day, had not long ended when I arrived. The much heralded Strawberry Moon was losing its fight with overpowering clouds that, for now, reflected prismatic city lights and lunar brilliance but which, at daybreak, would be revealed as grey and unloved. I settled next to a cement works that hummed and clanked, but revealed no human form, despite there being several illuminated huts. Away in the […]

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03 May 2016

QUEEN STREET, SALFORD 4.32AM

QUEEN STREET 4.32AM This dawn was, I imagine, how most people think of daybreak. The sky was a swirled mess of blues and greys, with the clouds pink and fluffy like the pom-poms on a show poodle. Birds sweetly sang in trees beyond my eyes and geese on the nearby Irwell barked distant warnings. The streets were almost free of traffic, whilst in the apartments behind me, some lights still glowed, although no moving silhouette gave away any life within […]

28 Jan 2016

DUCIE STREET 7.18AM

DUCIE STREET 7.18AM This was a morning when nothing much happened. The rain fell in great globules before declaring its ceasefire on the streets for rush hour. The need to keep the camera dry had helped me find a cubby hole on Ducie Street, a hidden entrance to a new building above the old canal. Beneath the bridge there was an opened sleeping bag and some cans, evidence that someone had been sleeping on the towpath. They were gone now […]

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21 Jan 2016

STANLEY STREET 7.44AM

STANLEY STREET 7.44AM The temperature was only just above freezing. Instinct took me to the high ground above Redbank, where I could watch dawn advance across the edge of the city centre. A slither of flame red sky topped the far rooftops and, as if a hundred Popes were being chosen, puffs of white steam rose into the blueing clouds from much needed heating units. Whilst I watched, a man came and stood next to me. “I’ve tried to capture […]

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14 Jan 2016

DANTZIC STREET, 7.10AM

DANTZIC STREET, 7.10AM I keep coming back to Dantzic Street. The bridges fascinate me, with the their dark, blue brick and tarnished tiles. I can find myself staring for quite some minutes at the silhouettes of people picked out by car headlights, as they pass under the rumbling ceilings which support the trains and trams. Sometimes, in the damp aftermath of Manchester rain I want to touch the walls, as if I’m earthing myself to the old city, and imagine […]

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24 Nov 2015

WHITTLE’S CROFT, MANCHESTER 6.17AM

WHITTLE’S CROFT 6.17AM The rain was bouncing off my hood, the tippy-tap noise being my only company in this small side street tucked away behind Ducie House. I saw no-one and no-one saw me. If I’d been more of an animal than my modern, city self I’d have gone to shelter on higher ground. The lemming leaves lay dead on the ground, except for two which remained like young lovers looking into the sunset on the last night of their […]

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11 Nov 2015

DANTZIC STREET 6.48AM

DANTZIC STREET 6.48AM It’s funny what things you notice in adverts, that lodge in your brain and then are played back to you in coincidental, real life moments. I’d seen that the Milk Tray Man was being resurrected, which is an odd idea when you think about it. A stranger, a loner, breaks into the house of a single woman, and leaves some cheap chocolates for her, signifying that she’s not only being watched, but that her home is also […]

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26 Oct 2015

GUN STREET, ANCOATS 6.32AM

GUN STREET, ANCOATS 6.32AM Today the clocks were turned back. Rain lingered like a truculent teenager, smearing the cobbled streets of Ancoats with a Brylcreem sheen. The area is a work in progress. Old buildings, like patients screened off in a hospital ward, are surrounded by scaffolding, as the heart of the world’s first industrial city is given a new life by Manchester’s pacemakers. Original brickwork and Victorian grandeur have been retained where possible, causing streets which until recently were […]

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12 Oct 2015

JERSEY STREET, ANCOATS, 6.41AM

JERSEY STREET, ANCOATS 6.41AM The top of Jersey Street is separated from the creators and new residents of the regenerated Ancoats by a small, humped bridge. In front of the estate, that looked towards the flourishing city centre skyline, had been placed a Free School. The grey, fenced in Portakabins caused it to look more like a holding centre for refugees than a place of learning for young children. A man in a hi-vis jacket was patrolling the gate as […]

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03 Oct 2015

LITTLE LEVER STREET AT DAWN

LITTLE LEVER STREET 6.51AM A SLOW MOMENT FILM The area around Little Lever Street, just off Great Ancoats Street is still awaiting gentrification. The buildings are struggling to remain and the small, dark streets are pock marked by rubbish. At dawn most of us are in that state of sleep that allows dreams to fill our minds, and in these half lit streets can sense the ghosts of old Mancunia as the area awaits its rescue. This film contains flickering. […]

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Tag : Mills in Manchester

COW LANE, SALFORD 3.06AM -4.15AM

QUEEN STREET, SALFORD 4.32AM

DUCIE STREET 7.18AM

STANLEY STREET 7.44AM

DANTZIC STREET, 7.10AM

WHITTLE’S CROFT, MANCHESTER 6.17AM

DANTZIC STREET 6.48AM

GUN STREET, ANCOATS 6.32AM

JERSEY STREET, ANCOATS, 6.41AM

LITTLE LEVER STREET AT DAWN

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