Today's mystery in the countryside near New Mills.

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Roderick

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I wish I could tell you all about it but every where I've looked I've drawn a blank. On the oldest maps there is a little building like a shepherds hut here but apart from a couple of bits of old wall round the back there is little trace of that. Every other obscure thing on this web site seems to be recognized by somebody who used to work on or in it and can give precious insights....I do enjoy a good mystery but will it be solved this time?
Location: Near where Laneside Rd meets Over Hill Rd if you look to your right you see a couple of rather odd things.
IMG_01.jpg

It's hiding in the trees and further to the right is an interocitor or possibly a death ray focused on new Mills golf club.
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As you get closer to the metal structure the first thing of note is the top fence has old concrete posts like you see put up by official people when all the other field boundaries around this area are dry stone or wooden fence posts.IMG_02.jpg
There is a curious metal tower with compartments in the bottom half.
IMG_03a.jpg
The actual building is surrounded by piles of rocks and a double fence
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The Stone walls are very odd being only a single thickness of rough stone buttressed here and there with beautifully dressed regular big stone blocks just on the inside.
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The metal work is even more peculiar, Each corner pillar is placed in a deep walled recess which for some reason doesn't fill with water though all the other legs sit
on concrete pads at ground level.
IMG_07.jpg

The metalwork is all wrapped in very heavy polythene of the sort you would use for a DPC though in places it has gone hard and brittle, broken up and blown away.
However you look at it you can't figure out what it was meant to support, there are no continuous levels where you could mount a roof or platform and most of it isn't that substantial anyway.
IMG_05.jpg

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Time to head over to the death ray but on the way there there is a hole surrounded by funny sticks.
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Close up it seems to be a well full of water.
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The interocitor is beginning to look like it might be home-made by bored but clever sheep.
IMG 12.jpg

Or perhaps it's a windmill (built by martians)
IMG_13.jpg

The only possible entrance is on this side but I couldn't see any way of opening it. Tapping the body it sounded like either fibre glass or well painted ply board.
IMG_15.jpg

The collapsing shed thing behind contained what looked like an old compressor some heavy duty sprocket and pully wheels and a very heavy RSJ frame.
Behind that was another heavy frame looking like it was a base for another big machine.
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Further down the field was this.
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Any ideas? It looks pretty derelict so I guess it belongs here.
 
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Interesting stuff … can't tell you what it was intended to be, but as you say, the steelwork is wrapped in heavy duty 1200 or 2000 gauge Visqueen just like you would use for a DPM under a concrete slab. The steel frame looks like it could have been part of a sculpture of some sort, since the rolled steel angles are too lightweight to support a traditional building.

The "funny sticks" look like engineers' profiles, which are hammered into the ground to establish levels when civil engineering works are going on. Looks like they've been used to create a fence of sorts around the well?

Your interocitor looks very much like a primitive aero generator, with a hub minus its propellor blades, a body that pivots on a bearing and contains an alternator or dynamo, and a tail fin which swings the blades into wind. It does look a bit homebuilt, there used to be several similar-ish machines at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales.

Another clue or perhaps red herring is that the symbol painted on the sides of the pyramid that supports the aero generator is Anderson Strathclyde's logo. They were a mining technology company which built coal shearers, conveyors, road headers and other underground machines. No longer in business, but you can compare the logo on this link -
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-a...international-mining-exhibition-26162834.html
Best guess would be that the farmer/ landowner enjoyed designing and building bits of machinery, and had time on his hands plus a scrapheap to use as raw materials…
 
Interesting stuff … can't tell you what it was intended to be, but as you say, the steelwork is wrapped in heavy duty 1200 or 2000 gauge Visqueen just like you would use for a DPM under a concrete slab. The steel frame looks like it could have been part of a sculpture of some sort, since the rolled steel angles are too lightweight to support a traditional building.

The "funny sticks" look like engineers' profiles, which are hammered into the ground to establish levels when civil engineering works are going on. Looks like they've been used to create a fence of sorts around the well?

Your interocitor looks very much like a primitive aero generator, with a hub minus its propellor blades, a body that pivots on a bearing and contains an alternator or dynamo, and a tail fin which swings the blades into wind. It does look a bit homebuilt, there used to be several similar-ish machines at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales.

Another clue or perhaps red herring is that the symbol painted on the sides of the pyramid that supports the aero generator is Anderson Strathclyde's logo. They were a mining technology company which built coal shearers, conveyors, road headers and other underground machines. No longer in business, but you can compare the logo on this link -
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-a...international-mining-exhibition-26162834.html
Best guess would be that the farmer/ landowner enjoyed designing and building bits of machinery, and had time on his hands plus a scrapheap to use as raw materials…
Good guesses, I agree the steelwork does look a bit flimsy in parts yet the bases it's on are pretty heavy duty, I also considered the possibilty it was a kind if engineering folly (in the same way people build ruined buildings on hills) but in that case why wrap it in Visqueen. Many of the metal bits are painted/powder coated in an MOD grey. Perhaps the farmer/Shaun the sheep bought a big MOD meccano set in an auction and was experimenting to see what he could build with it. Were the wind generators in the C.A.T. built on Pyramid bases? Curious about that logo too.
 
The artefact in the last photo looks like a mount of some sort. I don't know if the triangular construction belongs to it but if it's connected then it could be a movable rest/direction pointer. I couldn't find any photos like it either but I'm going to stick my neck out and guess that it was, or something like, a WW2 gun mount for a light AA or AT machine gun.
Then again, it might be something that was cobbled up for use on a farm truck for winching stuff, lol!
 
Good guesses, I agree the steelwork does look a bit flimsy in parts yet the bases it's on are pretty heavy duty, I also considered the possibilty it was a kind if engineering folly (in the same way people build ruined buildings on hills) but in that case why wrap it in Visqueen. Many of the metal bits are painted/powder coated in an MOD grey. Perhaps the farmer/Shaun the sheep bought a big MOD meccano set in an auction and was experimenting to see what he could build with it. Were the wind generators in the C.A.T. built on Pyramid bases? Curious about that logo too.

The steelwork has possibly been built over the founds of an older building? Obviously haven't seen it in reality, but from your photos I'd guess the steelwork is painted in grey M.I.O. (micaceous iron oxide) paint. IIRC the wind generators at C.A.T. were carried on a mixture of pylons and towers, rather than pyramids. The pyramid is probably symbolic and smacks a bit of Glastonbury, the KLF or Robert Anton Wilson…

I'd be tempted to have a chat with the local farmer and just ask him what the structures are, there's probably an interesting back story behind them.
 
The steelwork has possibly been built over the founds of an older building? Obviously haven't seen it in reality, but from your photos I'd guess the steelwork is painted in grey M.I.O. (micaceous iron oxide) paint. IIRC the wind generators at C.A.T. were carried on a mixture of pylons and towers, rather than pyramids. The pyramid is probably symbolic and smacks a bit of Glastonbury, the KLF or Robert Anton Wilson…

I'd be tempted to have a chat with the local farmer and just ask him what the structures are, there's probably an interesting back story behind them.
Like me you obviously have an engineering background, looking at the structure, the stone walls look unfinished and there is no trace of a building (other than what was probably a tiny shepherds hut) on any of the old maps. Those excavations for the corner metal posts look very deliberate and about 1.5m deep so I doubt it was built over the foundations of something else. In the past nearly everything I've looked at on here has received a post after a few weeks from somebody once closely connected with it so I half expect the builder to pop up here any minute. If that doesn't happen I'm sure I can track down the farmer, he will probably greet me with "Are you the bugger who sent all those folks trampling over my land, Fido, seize him, I'm just going to get my gun" I'm sure it will make a good story one way or another lol.
 
Just noticed this thread. though Id give my opinion as I design & build structural steel for a living
The steelwork looks like framework for dwelling & the bits in ground would be backfilled with concrete.
Im guessing someone has tried to use the fact that there was originally a barn there to build a house (prob without planning or engineers calcs by the looks of it) Id say they were hoping to "get away with it" & rebuild an original looking stone build around the steel skeleton but have prob been stopped mid construction.
I cant make out if the steel is a grey primer or galvanised, but dont imagine its a special coat as prev mentioned, Im guessing just a grey zink phospate primer & they have tried to protect it a bit from the elements by wrapping it.

As for the rest of stuff on site I have no idea, maybe someone was trying to make a sustainable place as the triangular thing looks like it would have a wind turbine on top?
 
I cant make out if the steel is a grey primer or galvanised, but dont imagine its a special coat as prev mentioned, Im guessing just a grey zink phospate primer & they have tried to protect it a bit from the elements by wrapping it.
To be fair you're likely right, I'm wearing my specifier's hat and thinking what it "should" be coated in!

Also does seem very much like a project that was started on site, but got halted by the Planners when somebody spotted it didn't have approval. Nobody likes the Planning Dept., but better just to get the paperwork sorted rather than waste thousands building something which gets pulled down for contravening the Local Plan.
 
Considering Tower Bridge is steel framework covered in stonework to make it 'attractive' and'fit in', perhaps someone was trying the same thing here.
 
Just noticed this thread. though Id give my opinion as I design & build structural steel for a living
The steelwork looks like framework for dwelling & the bits in ground would be backfilled with concrete.
Im guessing someone has tried to use the fact that there was originally a barn there to build a house (prob without planning or engineers calcs by the looks of it) Id say they were hoping to "get away with it" & rebuild an original looking stone build around the steel skeleton but have prob been stopped mid construction.
I cant make out if the steel is a grey primer or galvanised, but dont imagine its a special coat as prev mentioned, Im guessing just a grey zink phospate primer & they have tried to protect it a bit from the elements by wrapping it.

As for the rest of stuff on site I have no idea, maybe someone was trying to make a sustainable place as the triangular thing looks like it would have a wind turbine on top?
I thought something like that at first though the more you stand and look at it the more you realise there are no obvious levels that would work for floors. The footings are super heavy duty for the rest of the structure and it's bigger than it looks, the pictures don't really do it justice. If you are ever "bikin" in that area you should go and have a look with your specialist knowledge it would be good to hear your ideas. It's very easy to find.
 
Obviously nobody has actually seen any fixed WW2 gun mounts of any type and there were none in this area anyway! As for this very well known (to the locals) site, ask them; as us old buggers did when we first came across it many years ago. We just got 'research into wind power' thrown at us and as this was at a time when the environmental impact of the big coal fired megawatt power stations was under scrutiny. Working for the BRB, the potential loss of rail transportation of coal was an area of deep concern to my department.
 
Yes I think we've established the interocitor is some sort of wind generator though when I spoke to some fairly local people they didn't know anything about it (though I didn't knock on the door of the house which looks like its connected with the land for the reasons mentioned above). Have you got any theory or local knowledge about the strange steel structure further up the hill?
 
Obviously nobody has actually seen any fixed WW2 gun mounts of any type and there were none in this area anyway! As for this very well known (to the locals) site, ask them; as us old buggers did when we first came across it many years ago. We just got 'research into wind power' thrown at us and as this was at a time when the environmental impact of the big coal fired megawatt power stations was under scrutiny. Working for the BRB, the potential loss of rail transportation of coal was an area of deep concern to my department.
"research into wind power'" - as Spike Milligan as 'Eccles' used to say on The Goon Show: "Winds light to variable". I remember the 'merry-go-round' coal trains, running between the collieries and the power stations. Apart from during strikes, there was no 'lack of electricity' when the wind was not blowing. How much business did BR lose when the petroleum product pipeline network (for petrol, diesel and aviation kerosene) did away with the need for most tanker trains?
 
"research into wind power'" - as Spike Milligan as 'Eccles' used to say on The Goon Show: "Winds light to variable". I remember the 'merry-go-round' coal trains, running between the collieries and the power stations. Apart from during strikes, there was no 'lack of electricity' when the wind was not blowing. How much business did BR lose when the petroleum product pipeline network (for petrol, diesel and aviation kerosene) did away with the need for most tanker trains?
Bit of a two edged sword actually - with the ever increasing Health and Safety Regs, rail transport of flammables in rail tankers became a bit of a nightmare with all the paperwork involved. Still I would rather have dealt with a trainload of tank wagons, than a leaking road tanker on a suburban street!
 
Obviously nobody has actually seen any fixed WW2 gun mounts of any type and there were none in this area anyway! As for this very well known (to the locals) site, ask them; as us old buggers did when we first came across it many years ago. We just got 'research into wind power' thrown at us and as this was at a time when the environmental impact of the big coal fired megawatt power stations was under scrutiny. Working for the BRB, the potential loss of rail transportation of coal was an area of deep concern to my department.
Just as a wild guess, but as the main device does look awfully like something to analyse wind/air/pollution is the New Mills site significant because of it's predominantly up-wind proximity to the moors of the Peak District? There is much information about how pollution from Manchester etc. has affected the moorlands, this information must have been gathered from somewhere over the years?
 

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