Spirit of the North Gallery

Barrow-in-Furness shipyard 1920 EPW004064

BARROW-IN-FURNESS, Cumbria. Aerial view of the shipyard in July 1920 with four ships in various stages of completion. The shipyard was first established in 1852; by 1920 it was operated by Vickers Ltd as the Naval Construction Yard. At around this time it was building merchant vessels and liners for companies like Cunard. Aerofilms Collection (see Links)

© Historic England

Aintree racecourse, Liverpool 20434_011

AINTREE RACECOURSE, Liverpool, Merseyside. Opened in 1829 for horse racing on the flat, steeplechasing was officially introduced in 1839, when the first Grand National was run at Aintree. Amongst National Hunt courses, fences such as The Chair, Canal Turn and Bechers Brook make Aintree amongst the most challenging. In the 1950s and 1960s, Aintree also hosted the British Grand Prix and the Aintree 200, a non-championship Formula 1 motor race. Alfonso de Portago is notable for competing in both the Grand National and Grand Prix at Aintree. There is a nine hole golf course within the circuit

© Historic England

Consett Steel Works FF98_00247

Consett Steel Works, County Durham, 1945-80. Eric de Mare (1910-2002) cellulose acetate negative. Steel-making dominated Consett for 140 years from 1840, and the steelworks, employing 6, 000 workers in the 1960s, loomed over rows of terraced houses. Eric de Mare's elevated view of Consett Steel Works captures their gargantuan scale, echoing the work of pre-war photographers such as Albert Renger-Patzsch in Germany and Charles Sheeler in the United States who emphasised the strong forms of industrial structures. De Mare used colour photography here, recognising that this required a ?'different vision from black-and-white film. The massive tube in the foreground reflects his view that a close shot filling or almost filling? the frame will usually be more effective and more interesting

© Historic England