Day 16 - Searching the archives

Over 2 weeks into the challenge and all the easy ones are done, at least all those I can think of. The composition and subject Ideas I have now are a little more involved and going to take a little planning.

Mostly just some travel, but it is going to mean I will struggle to come up with a NEW image each day.

Today is one of those days.

I have been looking over my older images over the last few years and there are many that involve water, some waterfalls and river scenes that I do like.

However I wanted to maintain the focus on Water and how we have used it.

Down in Hartlepool there is a long pier that stretches out to the sea, which used to be a conduit for large water pipes through which sea water was piped into the local magnesia works as part of the extraction process. Magnesia was important in the manufacturing of steel.

The works were unit in 1937 and ran until 2005 when they were closed due to the declining steel industry in the UK.

The infrastructure was slowly demoted until by 2012 the only thing remaining is a 2000ft (600m) pier stretching out into the sea.

A section of it has been removed to prevent easy access onto the now dangerous structure.

Unsurprisingly it remains a focus of many photos and is a fitting example of how water has shaped our industry as well as how industry has evolved over the decades.