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View Full Version : Tower Works, Leeds, October 2008



Rochester
27-10-2008, 11:17 PM
Visited with Mexico 75, esperosa, sandman, mykal and miss angel fish.

Tower Works

Colonel Thomas Harding started out in business as a gill-pin maker in Great Wilson Street in Leeds in 1836. As the industrial revolution began to take off he opened the new Tower Works factory at Globe Road in 1864. The design of the new factory was heavily influenced by his love for Italian architecture and art. Harding's classification for pin sizes, the Harding Gauge, went on to become the international standard.

The most notable features of Tower Works are the three towers that give it its name and served as chimneys for the gill-pin factory. The largest and most ornate tower is based on the iconic Giotto campanile (bell tower) in Florence. The smaller ornate tower is based on the Lamberti Tower in Verona. A third plain tower, built as part of Harding's final phase of expansion in 1919, is thought to represent a Tuscan tower house. All three are listed structures, the two ornate towers being Grade II * and the plain tower Grade II.

The design for the Giotto Tower included ventilation systems that were way ahead of their time in terms of minimising pollution from the steel works. The chimney incorporated a filter to retrieve the excess steel dust from the production process. In 1895 T. W. Harding & Son amalgamated with two other companies to become Harding, Rhodes & Co. After sustaining damage in World War II when neighbouring buildings were bombed during the air raids on Leeds city railway station, the factory was never repaired and ceased to trade in 1981 after almost 120 years of operating on the site.

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff74/silverstealth_bucket/tower%20works%20best/towerview.jpg

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff74/silverstealth_bucket/tower%20works%20best/HighSpot.jpg

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http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff74/silverstealth_bucket/tower%20works%20best/Buttonssm.jpg

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff74/silverstealth_bucket/tower%20works%20best/FaceToFacesm.jpg

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff74/silverstealth_bucket/tower%20works%20best/TRHardingsm.jpg

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff74/silverstealth_bucket/tower%20works%20best/RichardArkwrightsm.jpg

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http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff74/silverstealth_bucket/tower%20works%20best/upshotsm.jpg

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff74/silverstealth_bucket/tower%20works%20best/downshotsm.jpg

Look no hands

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff74/silverstealth_bucket/tower%20works%20best/Cocoasm.jpg

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff74/silverstealth_bucket/tower%20works%20best/Towering.jpg

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff74/silverstealth_bucket/tower%20works%20best/TowerWorkssm.jpg

Rochester
28-10-2008, 12:16 AM
better to view them from the train than climb the pigeon infested death traps..:laugh

sqwasher
28-10-2008, 09:26 AM
Superb pics of the usual high standard SS, the close ups of the tower tops are ace & have much more detail than i've seen in other pics of them! :thumb

croiz
28-10-2008, 12:11 PM
I love that place. Top notch SS¬!

Rochester
28-10-2008, 12:31 PM
Superb pics of the usual high standard SS, the close ups of the tower tops are ace & have much more detail than i've seen in other pics of them! :thumb

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff74/silverstealth_bucket/tower%20works%20best/chimneytopsm.jpg

Heres the very top of the big one, I climbed half way up but the ladder was getting too slippy to climb any further.

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff74/silverstealth_bucket/tower%20works%20best/cornerdetailsm.jpg

Heres the corner stone.

I have found a lot more history on this site now which contradicts the usual stuff.

http://silverstealth.fotopic.net/c1602143.html