Report - Corah Works, Leicester - 2008/14

[Mr Sam]

i might of posted some of my pics before but they no doubt didn't cut the mustard and got filtered out so heres a few from over the years, its present state is dire open floors are trashed completely and alot of dodgy tales keep popping up of goings on inside however its still a large site and well worth a look around and im guessing only a matter of time before it ends up like BUSM……apartments, also theres still a fair chunk of the lower floors still in use a storage, knitting and even as skate park!

in the past i have worked for multi million airs who started off at Corah on 30p an hour and recall the "july fortnight" when the town would more or leff shut down as everyone had there 2 weeks leave more or less the same time yet still getting paid there 30p an hour

St Margaret's Works[edit]
In 1855, Thomas Corah & Sons had 2000 knitting frames, making it one of the largest hosiery firms in the country.[6] By 1865, its premises on Granby Street had become too small, and so the company decided to relocate to a location close to the River Soar and the Great Central Railway. A site north of the city centre was chosen, in the parish of St Margaret. The initial plans devised a scheme for the construction of premises on an immense scale: the main warehouses was 160 feet long and 50 feet wide. The rear was an even larger building, the factory, the dimensions of which were 294 by 80 feet. The 140-foot chimney was attached to the factory. The works were driven by a large steam powered beam engine, which was started for the first time on 13 July 1865.[7][8]
By this time the firm had expanded its product range beyond hosiery. In the 1870s, for instance, it began producing football and rugby jerseys, in addition to a range of men and women's garments.[9]

Corah - a set on Flickr

visited over the years with most of the Leicester lot

13/7/99

loads of interesting local and national related paperwork everything from letters from breweries to there pubs and 1950's British Rail paperwork…this was the section that burnt down in 2012