On February 18th 1911 a disastrous fire occurred destroying the building due to the pitch pine roof being ignited by heat from the boiler.

The Churches misfortunes would continue over the next several decades through subsidence caused by mine workings. Work was carried out to try fix the problem in the 1920s but overtime the problem has worsened and due to an increasing cost to repair the building, the church was relocated in 2001 to the old school building, ironically the same place that housed the church for two years after the 1911 fire. Today the old church stands derelict and amid controversial plans to convert it to a housing development.

Structually the east end of the church is in a desperately dangerous sitaution with a crack going down both sides of the church walls. It will only be a matter of time before it colapses.

The house was originally built for the Vicar of Bramham, Robert Bownas, and was then bought in 1814 for £3,000 by James Lane Fox of nearby Bramham Park.

He gave the house to his son, George, as a wedding present.

George Lane Fox then sold the house in 1856 to settle large debts, many of them from his gambling.

After that the house changed hands several times before it was bought by the then West Riding of Yorkshire Council in 1947 as a children’s home.

It was featured in SAVE’s  ‘Take a chance on me’ at risk register in 2011.

For a more detailed history of site please read one of my previous reports here

It’s fair to say 2011 wasn’t a vintage year for me, illness and other factors meant I wasn’t half as active as previous years. 2012 shall be different, stay tuned.

(Camera used:  Canon EOS 300N Film SLR, Canon 50mm f1.8 prime, Kodak C41 B&W Pro Film)

The site continued to operate until the seams were completely exhausted in 2008. The buildings were continued to be maintained by the workers who still take pride in their colliery and the actions that brought about an extended production life.

The extraordinary story has recently started a new chapter with the announcement that they are going to create an open cast mining site on the location of the former washery connected to the colliery. This will provide up to 250 new jobs and the coal will be supplying Aberthaw Power Station.

Tone Mill in Wellington is the last woollen mill in the West Country, with a priceless collection of original machinery still in place in the wet finishing works. The site is of European significance.

This was my third visit to the site, over the years the site has deteriorated and before long the building will start to crumble. This was my first visit since the death of 0742, a Sheffield based explorer, who first showed me around this place and campaigned hard to  save it.  His ashes were recently spread around the site.  He’s at peace with the site he loved.  Miss you Mozaz.

The building is surround by graves on three sides of it, vastly overgrown an unloved in places there are graves of victims of the 1864 Sheffield floods.

Henry Wilde, the Chief Officer of the RMS Titanic, was christened here in 1872

Stanley Royd was one of the earliest asylums built with construction starting in 1816. Work completed in November 1818. It closed in 1996 and has since been converted for residential use.

The Stephen Beaumont museum which is still on the site is open from 10am to 4pm on Wednesday’s and provides a unique insight to asylum life. The exhibition includes restraining equipment, a padded cell, photographs dating from 1862 plus medical and surgical equipment and documents.

Bailey mill in Delph was built in 3 stages, starting in 1863 with later additions in 1865 and 1871 respectivelyand was owned by the Mallalieu family who were in the textile business strating withcotton and later moving onto wool, depite abandoning works at bailey mill in 1999 they moved just up the road to valley mill where they remain in business to this day.