Many of you will remember the Stanton and Staveley foundry that Raddog and I did back in September. The Stanton foundry is another works a few miles away in Ilkeston. It too is a century old iron foundry, which like Stanton and Staveley was shut after the Takeover by Saint Gobain pipelines this year.
The site is huge, with enormous scrap bunkers where the iron was brought in. It was lifted by magnet to a vibrating system which passed it through to the melting shop.
The melting shop is one of thre most impressive sheds I have seen in my time exploring, it is epic in size and height. Two of the largest gantry cranes have seen (dwarfed only by the 90 tonner at Inverkip) sit at the top of the shed. To think they are some of the largest moving machines I have ever seen, and they are hanging up in the roof of the place!
Much remains in the melting shop including control rooms, melting post and other remnants of the founding process. As with every foundry everything was covered in a huge alayer of black dust... a reminder what a hot and dusty place the works would have been to work in!
From the melting shop we followed the lime conveyer down from the crane level to the foundry's own railway sidings.
I was amazed at the size and condition of Stanton. But it is sad to see another huge century old foundry come to an end.
The site is huge, with enormous scrap bunkers where the iron was brought in. It was lifted by magnet to a vibrating system which passed it through to the melting shop.
The melting shop is one of thre most impressive sheds I have seen in my time exploring, it is epic in size and height. Two of the largest gantry cranes have seen (dwarfed only by the 90 tonner at Inverkip) sit at the top of the shed. To think they are some of the largest moving machines I have ever seen, and they are hanging up in the roof of the place!
Much remains in the melting shop including control rooms, melting post and other remnants of the founding process. As with every foundry everything was covered in a huge alayer of black dust... a reminder what a hot and dusty place the works would have been to work in!
From the melting shop we followed the lime conveyer down from the crane level to the foundry's own railway sidings.
I was amazed at the size and condition of Stanton. But it is sad to see another huge century old foundry come to an end.
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