Justin Parkes
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justparkes.bsky.social
Justin Parkes
@justparkes.bsky.social
620 followers 420 following 110 posts
Museum curator | travel | industrial history | art | photography | views mine
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justparkes.bsky.social
Dr Andy Clark opening this year’s @sticknetwork.bsky.social autumn conference at The Engine Shed in Stirling

The theme is Narratives of Industrial Work Heritage. So many great insights on recording & using oral history
A man standing in front of a large screen with the projected image of men lifting chains overlaid with yellow text reading ‘STICK CONFERENCE: ‘Narratives and Memories of Industrial Work and Heritage’. 31 October 2025 Stirling’.
October 31, 2025 at 1:13 PM
justparkes.bsky.social
There’s quite a dramatic view of the back of Motherwell Town Hall just now

The hall part is being demolished before the building is converted into housing. Latterly it was home to a Laser Quest, hence the decor
Heavy machinery demolishing the sandstone gable end wall of a large hall. The exposed roof timbers above have been stripped of their slates. The building’s clock tower is visible behind.
September 2, 2025 at 5:23 PM
justparkes.bsky.social
This little fragment of industrial housing has a Summerlee connection @nlheritage.bsky.social

The New Orbiston rows in #Bellshill were built c.1892 by the Summerlee Iron Company for miners & their families. Map courtesy of @natlibscot.bsky.social
A dog-leg section of brick wall with stone blocks in the middle section. That part is the end of a miners’ row & the rest is part of a boundary wall. A map showing rows of terraced housing surrounded by fields. A red circle indicates the portion in the photos. A view of the other side of the wall, showing the surviving exterior corner of the miners’ row which is made of brick with large stone blocks on the corner.
July 21, 2025 at 7:01 PM
justparkes.bsky.social
Rubbish photo but this is the end façade beside the river
An old stone wall covered with moss and partly obscured by plants.
July 11, 2025 at 10:32 PM
justparkes.bsky.social
Volunteering today with @archscot.bsky.social dig on the site of Robert Owen’s New Orbiston manufactury nr Bellshill

Our trench is already looking interesting now we’ve cleared the vegetation @scotindustria.bsky.social @sticknetwork.bsky.social @nlheritage.bsky.social q
Four people in an area of woodland using a blue measuring tape to mark out a trench. The rectangular trench cleared of vegetation and marked out with red string. A view of the South Calder Water, a small river overhung by trees on both sides.
July 11, 2025 at 12:54 PM
justparkes.bsky.social
Enjoyed last night’s preview of ‘Everything Flows’ at Summerlee Museum #Coatbridge. It’s an exhibition about North Lanarkshire’s music scenes & opens today

The brilliant interviews by @shacklington.bsky.social will be added to our oral history collection @nlheritage.bsky.social
A group of people standing talking in a high-ceilinged exhibition space, surrounded by colourful album art. Another view of part of the exhibition showing a dance floor with star graphics on the floor and a big picture of singing sisters Fran and Anna. People sitting and standing watching video interviews on a screen.
June 28, 2025 at 8:34 AM
justparkes.bsky.social
The tour was followed by an outdoor screening of Lanarkshire artist Amanda Thomson’s wonderful film Boundary Layers that blends new footage with archive film from @natlibscot.bsky.social & oral history from the @nlheritage.bsky.social collection 3/3
A large outdoor screen with images of the Ravenscraig site and the words ‘Ravenscraig - a Fragile Correspondence’. Six people stand in front of an (unseen) audience. A women on the left talks into a microphone.
June 10, 2025 at 9:44 PM
justparkes.bsky.social
This is the base of one of the Ravenscraig gas holders. Frank demonstrated his pinhole photography practice & Hamshya explained how vegetation adapts to (& in some cases captures) pollutants 2/3
A man and a woman stand on an overgrown concrete base with trees behind. The man is leaning on a camera tripod, both smile. A screenshot of an Apple Maps aerial view of our location, showing woodland with a series of large, circular clearings. A wider view of the artists surrounded by an audience standing in the sunshine.
June 10, 2025 at 9:36 PM
justparkes.bsky.social
Perfect weather for today’s @northlanarkshire.gov.uk Artwalk on the Ravenscraig Steel Works site. It was led by Tine Collective artists Frank McElhinney & Hamshya Rajkumar who explained how nature has reclaimed the site 1/3
June 10, 2025 at 9:29 PM
justparkes.bsky.social
Found this phone picture from May 2014, the scene the day after the 1st fire at @glasgowschoolofart.bsky.social
Photo of a city centre street looking up a side street that is taped off and guarded by police. A tall, burnt-out building is visible behind.
May 26, 2025 at 8:44 PM
justparkes.bsky.social
Enjoyable evening at the premiere of Potential Energy @scotstorycentre.bsky.social in Edinburgh. It’s a documentary about the recent discovery of the 2nd oldest Crossley gas engine & the screening was followed by a visit to the engine
An old engine artfully lit in a stone-built space. Cast into the base of the engine jn large letters are ‘CROSSLEY BROTHERS / MANCHESTER’ An old fan assembly leaning against the wall next to the engine A man walking upstairs between talk stone built buildings
May 23, 2025 at 6:55 PM
justparkes.bsky.social
#Motherwell steel on monitor M33 at @royalnavy.bsky.social Portsmouth Dockyard. The ship was built in Belfast in 1915 @sticknetwork.bsky.social
A detail of the interior of a steel warship with a vertical girder on the left with the words ‘DALZELL STEEL’ embossed on it. A view of a small early 1900s warship in dry dock.
May 2, 2025 at 8:25 PM
justparkes.bsky.social
From the same day a view across Old Eldon Square to St James’ Park. Old West Stand still there but only two floodlight towers
A view from high up across a city centre square and shopping arcade to a football stadium in the distance.
April 30, 2025 at 8:49 PM
justparkes.bsky.social
@neheritagelib.bsky.social here are a few photos of #Newcastle from the top of Grey’s Monument in 1986: Emerson Chambers with its external fire escape, Grey St, Grainger St, top of the old Post Office building with a glimpse of old Brunswick Place.
Photo looking down on a city centre sandstone Art Nouveau building with 5 storeys plus attic. Each end has a green copper clad dome on the roof. A view down a curving 1830s city centre street of classical buildings. Two large buildings on the left are being rebuilt or refurbished. A view down a long, straight city centre street from a height. A view looking down on the flat roof of a 1930s sandstone city centre building.
April 30, 2025 at 8:45 PM
justparkes.bsky.social
Sounds nice
Part of the front of a brick built guest house painted red. A white rectangular sign on the first floor wall reads ‘Alcatraz Guest House All Rooms En-Suites & Family Rooms Sky T.V. & DVD’s in all rooms Tea/Coffee Facilities Contractors Welcome Tel: 0191 252 8920 ‘Once you’re in you won’t want to leave’’
April 13, 2025 at 1:05 PM
justparkes.bsky.social
Good to see the round reading room at the British Museum open again. Haven’t been in for years
A view of the interior of the round reading room with wooden book shelves around the wall and two iron railed balconies. Above the interior of the dome has regularly spaced double windows. The ceiling is painted white and sky blue with gold details.
March 10, 2025 at 3:52 PM
justparkes.bsky.social
Love these stairs on Cambridge St #Glasgow
Open concrete stairs between 3 storey buildings. There is colourful graffiti
February 25, 2025 at 8:53 PM
justparkes.bsky.social
Love this 1970 Electrical Association for Women tea towel brought to the @scotindustria.bsky.social Burns Doo by @ninabake2.bsky.social
A peach coloured tea towel with a labelled diagram of an electrical plug. Text at the bottom reads ‘Electrical Association for Women’.
February 8, 2025 at 3:51 PM
justparkes.bsky.social
I took this photo of some of Glasgow’s towers from the roof of the Met Tower in June 2010

Sighthill in left background & Red Road Flats at centre now gone
A cityscape of residential tower blocks in low evening sunlight against a dark sky. Seen from an elevated position.
January 31, 2025 at 11:22 PM
justparkes.bsky.social
Passing the Wester Gartshore Colliery bing at Waterside on the way to Edinburgh
An irregularly shaped old spoil heap against a cloudy sky with bare trees and a stream in the foreground.
January 19, 2025 at 12:45 PM
justparkes.bsky.social
Here’s a photo of the same footbridge. I took it in the late ‘80s, after the station building had been demolished but before the platforms went
A view across the railway track towards a platform. On the left, we can partly see a metal footbridge over the track. In the distance is a cityscape with high-rise buildings.
January 15, 2025 at 12:56 PM
justparkes.bsky.social
Here’s what that arch looks like now, with Cuthbert House on the left blocking the view from City Road
View across a narrow, wedge shaped car park between a 1960s office block on the left and a Victorian sandstone railway viaduct on the right.
December 18, 2024 at 7:43 PM
justparkes.bsky.social
The former Shark’s Mouth pub overlooking the canal basin on Bank Street, Coatbridge is about to be demolished

The original plan was for façade retention but now the whole site will be cleared for flats
A re sandstone late Victorian two storey building with decorative details including a bay corner window on the left hand side.
December 15, 2024 at 8:20 PM
justparkes.bsky.social
It’s seriously misty at Summerlee today

This is the Marshall Fleming locomotive steam crane, built for Dalzell Steel Works during the Second World War but to a much earlier design
An old steam crane with hook hanging from its raised latticed steel jib, almost silhouetted against the misty background.
December 10, 2024 at 1:00 PM
justparkes.bsky.social
There’s a cast from the interior in one of the Cast Courts at the V&A in S Kensington
View of a small copy of part of the interior of a Gothic church which is displayed inside a large Museum interior amongst other plaster casts.
November 21, 2024 at 8:31 PM