Pooleys were a firm of mechanical engineers, founded in Liverpool 1790. Shown as Pooley of Liverpool in Heath Mill Lane, Birmingham, the company originally made scale beams, such as shown here, a reminder of the origins of Humberstone.
A demand of the workers was access to a scale to verify company store weights. With this post I close this series of photographs from the Humberstone UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Click any photograph for a larger view and use Ctrl-x to zoom in closer.
1872 James Thomas Humberstone founded the Peru Nitrate Company. No, is geography was not deficient, this land was won by Chile from Peru in the War of the Pacific. This rolling stock was delivered from England, where Humberstone was born, in Dover, and worked his early years on railroads, London. At the age of 25, hired by the Tarapaca Nitrate Company, he moved to South American.
Robert Francis Fairlie developed the Fairlie Locomotive.
Click any photograph for a larger view and use Ctrl-x to zoom in closer.
Children are our hope and the future. The yellow sign reads “UNESCO Contribution. the restoration of five classrooms of School number 35.”
From their web site: UNESCO encourages international peace and universal respect for human rights by promoting collaboration among nations. Its mission is to contribute to the building of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue.
Click any photograph for a larger view and use Ctrl-x to zoom in closer.
United States of America has its own closed mining towns. Read about Empire, Nevada in Chapter Three of Jessica Bruder’s 2017, “Nomadland.” Empire thrived on gypsum mining until economic changes forced it to close. December 2, 2010 the entire town was informed June 20, 2011 was the deadline for all to leave the company provided housing. 100% of housing was owned by United States Gypsum. In Humberstone, as in Empire, Nevada, housing stands empty. Here, wo stopped clocks of the wooden tower overlooking the main Humberstone square emblemize the situation.
Click any photograph for a larger view and use Ctrl-x to zoom in closer.
An hexagonal bandstand, area lighting on the electric poles.
Ramada with table and benches.
View from the main square.
Water, the source of life pumped from where? We saw here and there hoses for watering plants. I did some research and there are three methods for supplying water (1) tankers (2) pipe hundreds of miles long and (3) harvesting fog. Yes, fog. It never, never rains but some locations are swept by fog. There plants there harvest the fog on branches and people are now doing the same. Follow the above link to learn more.
Michael Stephen Wills Photography 
You must be logged in to post a comment.