[Closed] Interesting unknown engineering landmarks in the uk

I'm surprised that [url= http://www.industrialfellbiking.co.uk/ ]This website[/url] hasn't been mentioned yet.

Ladybower Reservoir has been mentioned already, but i think we should have a picture:

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Just loving this thread [i]so[/i] much. What a wealth of fantastic structures we have in this country. Great stuff.

no one has mentioned RAF Menwith hill or RAF Fylingdales.

Magnus Production Platform. At the time the largest jacket built in the UK (40,000 tons) at Nigg in Scotland - then transported out and has been there in production since then in some pretty foul weather.... A snip at £1.1bn build cost.

Not too easy to see by bike, I grant you, but pretty impressive!

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or if we're doing foreign things, I think this one is easily older than anything else on this thread (and we've ridden the tandem across it as a means to get from one place to another).

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Though here's a feat of engineering in the UK which is a bit older than that, and has all sorts of interest as a bike trip
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Wow, that Ladybower Reservoir picture. 😯
I can just imagine a canoeist paddling like mad while getting dragged slowly backwards towards it...

brilliant response...like em all...answered first, thought about canal engineering , however after revieingv the geogrpahies I'd now propose that our O.S. maps are the greatest (civil) enginering 'landmark' of them all...(discuss / dispute if u like...)

that depends on how you define landmark

Great thread, plenty of things I've forgotten about, some things I've seen and plenty I've never seen.
I've just found this, I don't know how well known it is though.

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Newport Transporter Bridge, more info [url= http://www.welshicons.org.uk/html/newport_transporter_bridge.php ]here.[/url]

Anderton Boat Lift.

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[IMG] [/IMG]

Diamond light source, chilton ox

made and built some of the beamlines myself, quite proud,

manufactured parts for th LHC at Cern as well 😛

Skiboy - what is that - can you expand a little please?

ononeorange - Member
Skiboy - what is that - can you expand a little please?

[url= http://www.diamond.ac.uk/Home/About.html ]Diamond Light Source is the UK national synchrotron facility. Located in South Oxfordshire, it generates brilliant beams of light, from infra-red to X-rays, which are used in a wide range of applications, from structural biology through fundamental physics and chemistry to cultural heritage.[/url]

My mate's wife has a mug with a picture of Newport Transporter Bridge on it. I covet it.

The mug, not my mate's wife...

Another Newport Transporter Bridge pic . . .

[img] http://images.fotopic.net/?iid=y6of56&noresize=1&nostamp=1&quality=70 [/img]

Sadly no longer in regular use due to new distributor road . . . damn progress 🙁 .
Also walked across the Bilbao (iirc) transporter bridge on a fairly recent hol to Spain.

Incredible thread btw 8)

ononeorange,

that website expains it better than i ever could,

here's some early build pictures of the buisness end of the optics hutch beamline, pre-test etc,

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doing this for a living pays for plenty of this,

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😀

forgive the iphone pics, it is my day off

Hambledon hill. I ride over it quite often. Lovely on a summer evening at sunset, you can see all the way to the somerset levels.

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Salisbury cathedral. Not that unknown, but interesting to know that at 123m tall it's still in the top 20 tallest buildings in the UK. Especially considering it was built in 1400. It's the tallest medieval buiding in the world.

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Can I just make a little plea for local riders to organise Forum Rides so as we can all enjoy these structures?

For anyone that's a bit worried about organising, please don't be!!

MilitantGraham is doing a sterling job with the Severn Valley but unfortunately it was too short notice for me.

Looking forward to the next one in the South 8)

Truly an excellent thread - well done everyone. Quite inspiring stuff. My thoughts (before seeing other posts) were also:
[*]The Mersey Viaduct in Stockport - you just want to count the bricks - it's staggering![/*]
[*]Winter Hill - anything you can see for so far around is an achievement in itself.[/*]
[*]The tunnels under the likes of Liverpool, Manchester and of course London - weird when you think about it.[/*]
[*]Ladybower reservoir, and everything that goes with it.[/*]
[*]The M62 betwixt Manchester and Leeds - fascinating to think how they built it.[/*]

However - what about these (from where I grew up)

Some seriously old engineering at Maiden Castle (and there's a bridleway along one edge of it, IIRC.)
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Head north west on bridleways along the Ridgeway and you get to Hardy's Monument (Admiral, not the author)
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Just visible from the monument (if you look South) is Portland Harbour - impressive in itself, but home to remnants of the [url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulberry_harbour ]Mulberry Harbours[/url] used around D-Day.
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Great stuff - thanks again, OP.

Nuclear Structure Facility, Daresbury, Cheshire:

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[url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emley_Moor_transmitting_station ]Emley Moor Mast[/url]

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...and the one that went before it that came down in bad weather.

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Thnaks Matthewjb and skiboy. Never knew it was there, and not far from me too.

Reading about building the Wapping tunnel (the first tunnel under water) was quite something. How do you rescue a tunnel that's been breached by the river abopve using basic tools? Good old Brunels.

Of some interest..

[url] http://www.forgottenrelics.co.uk/index.html [/url]

Here's my little contribution. It's a disused wind pump near Winchester.

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[b]Can I make another polite request for kind folk to organise rides so as we can enjoy these structures? A culture ride, as it were.[/b]

Thank you so much. 😀

But these are dotted all over the country, Cinnamon Girl. It would be a bloody long ride to include them all! 😯

Regional rides could be a good idea; routes that string together several local landmarks, that folk could join up to ride.

A London one would be fantastic. Why hasn't someone thought of that before, I wonder?

(Lowey)Thirlmere Aquaduct. Amazing bit of Victorian Engineering. Water is never pumped. Gravity all the way from Thirlmere to Lostock. Takes 4 days.

that's what I wanted to put too! It actually runs near Lancaster, though I haven't seen it, but I did spot a pipe syphon from the train near Kendal which is either it or the Haweswater aqueduct. For some reason I've not been able to find an accuate map of its course so I can photograph nearby features 🙁

I'm trying to encourage people to organise one in any part of the country! Nothing interesting where I live but am pretty busy with organising forum rides anyway!

One was organised at short notice over Easter, it sounded really good but I couldn't make it.

Would definitely be interested if it was Southern, South West, Midlands areas. Volunteers please?

http://www.robedwards.com/2009/08/faslane-poses-risk-of-societal-contamination-says-mod.html

The ship lift at HMNB Clyde Faslane and its associated rail system of craddles can be seen from the hills around Gare Loch.

How about Crofton Beam Engines? Oldest steam engine in the world still capable of performing the job it was built for.

Last summer, the electric pumps on the K&A broke down, and the volunteers fired up the engines to rescue stranded boaters.. I think British Waterways should just pay for them to run every weekend as a sort of hot stand by.

Can I make another polite request for kind folk to organise rides so as we can enjoy these structures? A culture ride, as it were.

http://www.dreamlandresort.com/black_projects/machrihanish.html
http://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/search_item/index.php?service=RCAHMS&id=91750
RAF Machrihanish

MilitantGraham - oh, that must have been disappointing for you. 🙁

Do post up another date but with plenty of notice please. 😀

Simon.

Try here

http://www.jdscomponents.co.uk/gates/default.asp

Great thread. I am slowly exploring all this local to us, amazing feat(s) of engineering through the 40'-60's.
54 power stations, 78 dams and 300km+ of rock tunnels built....One book I read claims that a 3 mile tunnel, dug from both ends at once was less that 1/2" off maximum in any direction - remember this was all sighted and measured by eye and theodolite.
Who said 'green energy' is new or innovative - it is simple engineering.
Clicky for PDF of more.
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Oh, and if anyone wants a ride to see a few, then my Hydro / Scotaland ride would be a goer...

er, possibly quite well known this one but as I've been lucky enough to be allowed inside I can testify its as cool as a Bond villains lair:-)

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The MacLaren HQ in Woking.

The London Array...who says wind turbines look horrible?

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and also for some reason the M6 at Shap...possibly cos it leads to some ace mountain biking territory
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Wow - I was supposed to be vacuuming this afternoon, but have spent it looking at this thread. Fascinating, and I haven't managed to look at all the links properly - yet.

Here's a little one that fascinates me: The New River, runs from Hertford into North London, supplying drinking water. Originally ran by gravity but now some pumped sections.

[url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_River_%28England%29 ]The New River[/url]

If you go into Whitewebbs Park (Waltham Cross area, Herts) you can still see parts of the original river AND, still there, but not used (sorry, getting excited) - an iron acqueduct or flash.

One of the pumping stations is now Whitewebbs Museum.

[url= http://www.whitewebbsmuseum.co.uk/ ]How cool is this?[/url]

It's very very exciting isn't it? I love all this kind of stuff. I'm going to lie down now.

[img]http://[/img]I think that [url= http://www.nlb.org.uk/LighthouseLibrary/Lighthouse/Skerryvore/ ]Skerryvore lighthouse[/url] trumps Bell Rock. A few year later, more exposed, bigger, equally epic effort to build it.

There's also a great little museum on Tiree at [url= http://www.hebrideantrust.org/tiree.htm ]Hynish[/url] and in summer you can go on boat trips for the 20 mile each way trip to Skerryvore.

In the distance:
http://www.tireeimages.com/detail/surfers-skerryvore-01.html

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It never ceases to amaze me how they'd have built this (these actually as there are two of them)
Ladybower reservoir overflow holes.
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Apparently a bloke wanted a water chute ride one day so went down one.

Water chute FAIL.