I went on a wonder today, primarily to take a look at the Nurses Workhouse on the site of City Hospital, but as it's smack bang in the middle of the car park surrounded by cameras I dismissed it for now, and took off towards an industrial estate I noticed on Google Earth further north along Dudley Road.
The estate starts on Abberley Road, and turns onto Grove Street, and I stumbled across this small industrial unit just down Grove Lane. The building next door is Alvic Ltd, who specialise in pressed tools. All the research possible on the internet has failed to bring up this site being independent, so I'm assuming it's a now defunkt part of the site.
As you can see from the air, it's one main building, with chimney and tanks in a central complex, with 3 smaller workshop areas, and a substation around the back.
My research took me onto the Sandwell Council planning website, and it turns out the site, as well as the adjoining buildings right down the estate, are ear-marked for a mass development to construct an acute hospital.
The main building from the front, with the chimney.
To the right of the previous photo, still from the front of the complex, shows the two large oil storage tanks. They both went down slightly below ground level, but the trench was flooded. The larger of the workshops' entrance is shown on the right, with the blue doors. All of the workshops were stipped bear, and only had junk and rubbish in them. Not worth posting about.
Inside the main building were two large boilers, both stripped almost entirely of wiring.
A control manual dated 13/07/88. "Building Controls Specification" for client "European Industrial Services"
A close up of one of the dials located on the front of the right-most boiler. The left-hand boiler was in worse condition.
These Steel(?) right-angle brackets(?) were littered about over half the room, literally hundreds of them. I couldn't work out what their use was, or if they'd been produced there, or were for assembly of something.
Unfortunately I couldn't find anything on the "Aqua Plus 900" that these barrels once contained.
A control panel for one of the boiler units.
Taken from a small partitioned office/control room located in front of the boilers.
Either a pressure/temperature/quantity guage and control unit located on the front of the oil storage enclosure. Either side of the box were large alarm bells.
Around the back of the facility, large pipes were led across Cape Arm canal and along the far side.
View from the walkway on top of the oil tanker enclosure, on to the front courtyard. I went up the ladder to the top of the tank but there was a whole load of nothing on top. Because of the slanted top and me being on my own I didn't risk standing on top for a photo.
A very history-lacking report unfortunately. In fact the site is fairly un-interesting in itself, but I wouldn't mind learning more about the place and its' surrounding area if anyone has any information regarding it? I'm amazed how much equipment and machinery is left in this place, despite the obvious crackhead/drunk damage. There was alot of intact machinery on the balcony in the boiler room, but the stairs and flooring had been removed. It was possible to shimmy up via a ladder and some piping, but again, I was on my own.
The estate starts on Abberley Road, and turns onto Grove Street, and I stumbled across this small industrial unit just down Grove Lane. The building next door is Alvic Ltd, who specialise in pressed tools. All the research possible on the internet has failed to bring up this site being independent, so I'm assuming it's a now defunkt part of the site.
As you can see from the air, it's one main building, with chimney and tanks in a central complex, with 3 smaller workshop areas, and a substation around the back.
My research took me onto the Sandwell Council planning website, and it turns out the site, as well as the adjoining buildings right down the estate, are ear-marked for a mass development to construct an acute hospital.
The main building from the front, with the chimney.
To the right of the previous photo, still from the front of the complex, shows the two large oil storage tanks. They both went down slightly below ground level, but the trench was flooded. The larger of the workshops' entrance is shown on the right, with the blue doors. All of the workshops were stipped bear, and only had junk and rubbish in them. Not worth posting about.
Inside the main building were two large boilers, both stripped almost entirely of wiring.
A control manual dated 13/07/88. "Building Controls Specification" for client "European Industrial Services"
A close up of one of the dials located on the front of the right-most boiler. The left-hand boiler was in worse condition.
These Steel(?) right-angle brackets(?) were littered about over half the room, literally hundreds of them. I couldn't work out what their use was, or if they'd been produced there, or were for assembly of something.
Unfortunately I couldn't find anything on the "Aqua Plus 900" that these barrels once contained.
A control panel for one of the boiler units.
Taken from a small partitioned office/control room located in front of the boilers.
Either a pressure/temperature/quantity guage and control unit located on the front of the oil storage enclosure. Either side of the box were large alarm bells.
Around the back of the facility, large pipes were led across Cape Arm canal and along the far side.
View from the walkway on top of the oil tanker enclosure, on to the front courtyard. I went up the ladder to the top of the tank but there was a whole load of nothing on top. Because of the slanted top and me being on my own I didn't risk standing on top for a photo.
A very history-lacking report unfortunately. In fact the site is fairly un-interesting in itself, but I wouldn't mind learning more about the place and its' surrounding area if anyone has any information regarding it? I'm amazed how much equipment and machinery is left in this place, despite the obvious crackhead/drunk damage. There was alot of intact machinery on the balcony in the boiler room, but the stairs and flooring had been removed. It was possible to shimmy up via a ladder and some piping, but again, I was on my own.
