I found myself in Suffolk with an empty afternoon, and decided to give the old Delphi site a crack as it was litreally minutes round the corner. It'd be rude not to right?!
History
Starting life in 1944 as CAV Engineering, the initial site in Sudbury was chosen as the Germans had information about the existing London sites. Sudbuy was chosen so it would be safer from the risk of bombing. Cav Engineering continued for many years before renaming to Lucas CAV, and then finally Delphi before it's eventual closure in 2020. Delphi as a company still exists, but is owned by BorgWaner.
Delphi manufactured diesel systems, injectors and filters. The downturn of diesel engines resulted in the begining of the end for the Sudbury site. In 2015 they planned to cut about a quarter of the workforce, and then in August 2017 they announced plans to close the site in mid 2020 resulting in the loss of 520 jobs.
The Explore
I'd had this place pinned for sometime, but never had a reason to be in Suffolk. However ended up by complete chance in Suffolk for the mid morning for something completely unrelated, leaving me with an empty afternoon. The short December days meant that I had to speed run what would otherwise be a 4 hour+ explore, as I barely had 2 hours of decent light left by the time I got in.
The factory is absolutely huge, one of the larger industrial site I've explored at 33,000 Square metres. Sadly it's long been emptied of equipment meaning it's pretty much a completely empty building except fittings, fixtures and office furnture.
The rust red painted shop floor was absolutely covered in a greasy oily shit that I can only assume had dripped down from the very tall ceiling. Years of exposure to oil and diesel finally escaping no doubt.
Being an Engineer myself, and having worked in a number of factories and industrial settings, it looked like it was a decent place to work with a lot of facilities on site. It must have been a big knock to the local community when it finally closed its doors.
Photos
The bus stops for the employees.
Just catching the last of the evening light.
The ceiling fixtures and cables now lay scattered across the floor, no doubt the result of local kids and copper faires.
This end of the factory was very dark with no real natural light. It caught me slightly off guard and the floor was not only covered in trip hazard and holes, but also greasy oil and water making a bit of an ice rink.
While this was a massive open shop floor, it was all but stripped out of anything interesting. It had been a very windy gusty day, so the whole building was filled with noises of loose panels banging. I was expecting to turn a corner and find some of the noises to be a few kids smashing stuff up, but not a soul in sight. While this has become a bit of a free-for-all, it's far from the worst I've seen.
This looked like a bonded stores area.
Heading towards the front of the building to the main Foyer and offices, there is much more of the original signage left up.
A very 70s inspired flooring choice.
Looking out towards the entrance and security hut (lol).
Not seen too many factories that have an inbuilt safe this large nowadays.
The canteen area had strong liminal space vibes. I was a bit peckish by now, so wouldn't have turn down some of 'Sharons Snacks'.
Heading into the maintenance / facilities side of the factory leads you to the large boiler house. Then down some steps to the basement level which housed the large tanks of water, pumps and other equipment to run the plant.
History
Starting life in 1944 as CAV Engineering, the initial site in Sudbury was chosen as the Germans had information about the existing London sites. Sudbuy was chosen so it would be safer from the risk of bombing. Cav Engineering continued for many years before renaming to Lucas CAV, and then finally Delphi before it's eventual closure in 2020. Delphi as a company still exists, but is owned by BorgWaner.
Delphi manufactured diesel systems, injectors and filters. The downturn of diesel engines resulted in the begining of the end for the Sudbury site. In 2015 they planned to cut about a quarter of the workforce, and then in August 2017 they announced plans to close the site in mid 2020 resulting in the loss of 520 jobs.
The Explore
I'd had this place pinned for sometime, but never had a reason to be in Suffolk. However ended up by complete chance in Suffolk for the mid morning for something completely unrelated, leaving me with an empty afternoon. The short December days meant that I had to speed run what would otherwise be a 4 hour+ explore, as I barely had 2 hours of decent light left by the time I got in.
The factory is absolutely huge, one of the larger industrial site I've explored at 33,000 Square metres. Sadly it's long been emptied of equipment meaning it's pretty much a completely empty building except fittings, fixtures and office furnture.
The rust red painted shop floor was absolutely covered in a greasy oily shit that I can only assume had dripped down from the very tall ceiling. Years of exposure to oil and diesel finally escaping no doubt.
Being an Engineer myself, and having worked in a number of factories and industrial settings, it looked like it was a decent place to work with a lot of facilities on site. It must have been a big knock to the local community when it finally closed its doors.
Photos
The bus stops for the employees.
Just catching the last of the evening light.
The ceiling fixtures and cables now lay scattered across the floor, no doubt the result of local kids and copper faires.
This end of the factory was very dark with no real natural light. It caught me slightly off guard and the floor was not only covered in trip hazard and holes, but also greasy oil and water making a bit of an ice rink.
While this was a massive open shop floor, it was all but stripped out of anything interesting. It had been a very windy gusty day, so the whole building was filled with noises of loose panels banging. I was expecting to turn a corner and find some of the noises to be a few kids smashing stuff up, but not a soul in sight. While this has become a bit of a free-for-all, it's far from the worst I've seen.
This looked like a bonded stores area.
Heading towards the front of the building to the main Foyer and offices, there is much more of the original signage left up.
A very 70s inspired flooring choice.
Looking out towards the entrance and security hut (lol).
Not seen too many factories that have an inbuilt safe this large nowadays.
The canteen area had strong liminal space vibes. I was a bit peckish by now, so wouldn't have turn down some of 'Sharons Snacks'.
Heading into the maintenance / facilities side of the factory leads you to the large boiler house. Then down some steps to the basement level which housed the large tanks of water, pumps and other equipment to run the plant.
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