North of Skegness in February.
The end
So, this is the end of the Viking Way. 200 miles, I had to go back to the car every-time, in effect I walked it twice. I have set up a small website as a side project with usual musings https://spark.adobe.com/page/6qT6lYFam1TlG/ – enjoy…
Dog fisher
Cleethorpes revisited
I view seaside resorts with mixed emotions, I love the whole escapism bit but it also cuts against the grain. The job of the ‘Fantasy World’ is to fleece visitors of as much money as possible. In winter the lack of activity exposes the recumbent underbelly of the money making machine that is reliant warm weather and people’s wish to escape from reality.
On the edge
Viewing platform, created as part of a series of constructions for ‘Structures on the Edge’ along the Lincolnshire coast. https://twitter.com/SOTE_UK
Spanish City
Obviously intended to lend an air of the Costa-packet to those visiting the English seaside resort. Except that nothing other than the sign would indicate anything Spanish. Apart from the portable sign put in the street from the owner of Matador Cafe, which ironically, would not otherwise be found.
Industry
A sea of new cars standing in front of Killingholme oil refinery which will supply fuel throughout their lives. I’m not sure if the image needs text – it is what it is.
The flat surrounding countryside and villages are completely dominated by the oil refinery.
Apart from agriculture, Lincolnshire has very little industry left, Gainsborough and Lincoln used to produce heavy machinery on a large scale. Lincoln prides itself on being the birthplace of the tank. Scunthorpe Steelworks, which has been in decline for decades, Killingholme oil refinery and Siemens turbines are all that is left today.
It strikes me as quite sad that consumerism and fakery has replaced real civic pride in achievement with a nostalgic, rose tinted view of history. Gainsborough’s industrial history was marked by Marshals, from 1848 to 1992, who produced a variety of agricultural machinery from steam engines through to diesel tractors. Today the site of the factory is a shopping centre which retains some the original architectural features. In nostalgic celebration, on a roundabout, stands a fake plastic topiary sculpture of an agricultural steam engine, encircled by cars as though the past is under siege by progress. As with most story telling, truth is a combination of whatever the storyteller makes of it and how the viewer interprets it.
