Leigh984, The creative portfolio of Leigh Spencer

    I was given the chance to take a look inside a red brick water tower in Countesthorpe, Leicestershire . The tower, built in 1884 by the Leicester Poor Law Union , was part of the Countesthorpe Cottage Homes complex , which was an attempt by the Poor Law Union to place impoverished and orphaned children into model "cottage homes" rather than large central workhouses and foster a family-style environment. The tower housed the main water supply tank for the complex, and the adjoining building, the site’s central boiler house and coal store, provided heating and hot water to the cottages. The tower’s design was created by prominent local architect Isaac Barradale , using red brick with stone corbels and brick machicolations around the upper gallery and a steep pyramid-shaped roof. The building is currently Grade II listed (as of 1981). The building was converted into a private residence after the cottage homes closed in 1972. My visit was part of a fundraising event ...

  I took a trip to the Taylor’s Bell Foundry in Loughborough , Leicestershire , for a tour of the biggest and last remaining bell foundry of its type in the country. John Taylor arrived in Loughborough in 1839 with a vision to shape the soundscape of communities worldwide with their bells. John Taylor & Co. is not just the country’s last remaining bell foundry, but also a living link between tradition and innovation in bellmaking today. I took a " Casting Tour " around the site to see how centuries of tradition and skills passed through generations come together to create the bells we know so well in our churches and towns. We begin looking at the red brick buildings of the factory with the clanging soundtrack of industry in the background. Into the newly opened museum next, and the bell is rung to start our visit. In the casting hall , the roaring furnace is being prepared for casting later in the day. Into the workshop, and the clappers that give the bells their...

  I visited the Abbey Pumping Station to see the working Beam Engines which are housed inside a grand Victorian building designed by Stockdale Harrison. The beautifully painted engines are a spectacular sight and can be seen working in the way they where designed and built to be in Leicester by Gimson and Company, today they are rare examples of Woolf compound rotative beam engines in fact it is the only engine house in the world where you can see four working examples of the same beam engine in one building. My film looks at the various dials switches and mechanical parts of the engine in motion as they spin, turn, rise up and down and emit steam making for a warm and humid atmosphere inside the building. Images follow