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During 2020/2021 I spent quite a bit of time cycling from my home in Chorley, over to Southport via the back lanes as well as the main roads. Lancashire has a magnificently diverse landscape and I was fascinated by the flat farmlands of West Lancashire particularly around Tarleton and Hesketh Bank. Much of this is reclaimed marshland and is farmed by both large and small concerns.
Dave Lumb @Ed Sutton did a project a few years back as he lives there, but while it's relatively close to me, it's about 30 minutes drive due to it being mainly B-roads and villages so this will be a project I will do when I have a few hours to spare in which I can wander round. I'm hoping to go in similar light to maintain a consistency in the tones. So while cloudy, overcast skies aren't an issue (it's Lancashire after all), finding the time to go wander when the conditions are right is going to be a challenge.
I always thought that the area had the potential for a project but I didn't know what it was, but a growing interest in both panoramics and new topographics has come together in this project.
Why panoramics? This was partially informed by the acquisition of a Fuji GFX which is one of the few cameras that can take in camera 65:24 Xpan format photos (albeit a crop) , and the ability to see in that format in the viewfinder was what sold me on it. And the landscape itself is so open and flat, with lots of low, single storey buildings that it lends itself to a very wide format.
This is at first glance a very different subject matter to my usual industrial landscapes. But is it? While there is more soil and less steel, this is to a large extent a man made landscape. The area is full of farms, greenhouses and processing plants, with lots of salad veg being grown.
Leaving the village. There appears to be a lot of migrant workers on the farms - this one was wearing a Kyrgyz Republic tracksuit - and they live in large static caravans on the farms themselves. A large refrigerated lorry is heading in the opposite direction. These lorries are a common site hauling and are often foreign - some of the roadsigns are in French.
I notices that this is a landscape of straight lines. The roads are dead straight. The horizon is flat. The greenhouses are low and flat. The houses are all bungalows. And of course, the crops are planted in long, straight even lines thanks to the mechanisation of farming.
Johnson's Meanygate - a long, straight, narrow road that's not much more than a metalled farm track really.
Bolton's Meanygate - another long, straight, narrow road that's not much more than a metalled farm track really. The tractor driver gave me a friendly wave and goofy smile when has passed me as he'd noticed my camera, but I was too slow to react.
Middle Meanygate - there are a number of farms along here with their large greenhouses. The lorry didn't look like it had moved for some time. The road along here isn't in great shape - I drove down on it on a recce the other week and quickly regretted it.
More straight lines.
Planted field (I think), a drain and a field that is I think fallow.
Len Wright Salads, a large processing plant that looks completely out of place in the landscape.
The end of Middle Meanygate where it meets Taylor's Meanygate. Taylor's is a vastly better road - two lanes, recently resurfaced and a 40 mph speed limit. Another large lorry is approaching the entrance to Len Wright's in the previous picture.
Dave Lumb @Ed Sutton did a project a few years back as he lives there, but while it's relatively close to me, it's about 30 minutes drive due to it being mainly B-roads and villages so this will be a project I will do when I have a few hours to spare in which I can wander round. I'm hoping to go in similar light to maintain a consistency in the tones. So while cloudy, overcast skies aren't an issue (it's Lancashire after all), finding the time to go wander when the conditions are right is going to be a challenge.
I always thought that the area had the potential for a project but I didn't know what it was, but a growing interest in both panoramics and new topographics has come together in this project.
Why panoramics? This was partially informed by the acquisition of a Fuji GFX which is one of the few cameras that can take in camera 65:24 Xpan format photos (albeit a crop) , and the ability to see in that format in the viewfinder was what sold me on it. And the landscape itself is so open and flat, with lots of low, single storey buildings that it lends itself to a very wide format.
This is at first glance a very different subject matter to my usual industrial landscapes. But is it? While there is more soil and less steel, this is to a large extent a man made landscape. The area is full of farms, greenhouses and processing plants, with lots of salad veg being grown.
Leaving the village. There appears to be a lot of migrant workers on the farms - this one was wearing a Kyrgyz Republic tracksuit - and they live in large static caravans on the farms themselves. A large refrigerated lorry is heading in the opposite direction. These lorries are a common site hauling and are often foreign - some of the roadsigns are in French.
I notices that this is a landscape of straight lines. The roads are dead straight. The horizon is flat. The greenhouses are low and flat. The houses are all bungalows. And of course, the crops are planted in long, straight even lines thanks to the mechanisation of farming.
Johnson's Meanygate - a long, straight, narrow road that's not much more than a metalled farm track really.
Bolton's Meanygate - another long, straight, narrow road that's not much more than a metalled farm track really. The tractor driver gave me a friendly wave and goofy smile when has passed me as he'd noticed my camera, but I was too slow to react.
Middle Meanygate - there are a number of farms along here with their large greenhouses. The lorry didn't look like it had moved for some time. The road along here isn't in great shape - I drove down on it on a recce the other week and quickly regretted it.
More straight lines.
Planted field (I think), a drain and a field that is I think fallow.
Len Wright Salads, a large processing plant that looks completely out of place in the landscape.
The end of Middle Meanygate where it meets Taylor's Meanygate. Taylor's is a vastly better road - two lanes, recently resurfaced and a 40 mph speed limit. Another large lorry is approaching the entrance to Len Wright's in the previous picture.
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