1. The History
The depot was built in 1982 on the site of the former Midland Ironworks on Midland Road. The site’s 17,000 square metre footprint depot consisted of maintenance and cleaning facilities, a large canteen and admin offices. At its peak level of utilisation, the depot was home to 230 drivers and 80 vehicles.
By 2016, the depot was subject to significant under-utilisation and the company was making a loss by continuing to operate the site. In October 2016 they announced plans to close the depot with operations and staff to move to the Olive Grove Road Depot in Sheffield, and Doncaster. There were also along 20 redundancies. The site formally closed in February 2017. The site was transferred to South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (MCA).
After First Bus moved out it was subsequently used for police firearms training and then in 2019 as a COVID-19 vaccination centre during the pandemic. The land is now up for sale, with or without demolition of the depot. The site was costing the MCA £160,000 per year for security and business rates. Rotherham MBC were engaged in discussions throughout 2021 on the depot’s future in relation to wider regeneration plans within the town. One potential uses of the power capacity on the site was to support electric vehicle charging. However, currently the site lies open and vandalised and recently was occupied by travellers who parked up in the depot’s car park.
2. The Explore
Pinned this as far back as September 2019 when @mookster gave us all a head’s up in the Lead or Rumour section. Then I forgot about it until I saw a report on the place. So off me and my non-forum exploring mate went for a look see. Entry was dead easy as the gates were wide open and the main building had multiple entry points. The site itself is massive. The massive maintenance and cleaning facilities are empty but impressive on their size alone. The office/admin area is pretty smashed up but the safes were interesting. The best bit, however, was the boiler room. Overall, an enjoyable mooch for an hour or so. Annoyingly, somehow, I managed to lose my brand-new torch on its first outing. Hey ho…
3. The Pictures
A quick couple of externals:
Main depot area:
This was quite clever:
Electrics:
Admin block:
Pretty trashed:
Room with safes in:
Safe mechanism:
Side room of the main area:
On to the second large building:
Some sort of pumps:
The inspection pits:
The boiler room:
Destination roll on floor and some familiar place names:
Close-up of boiler door:
And the inside:
Some interesting gear on the boiler room wall:
A KDG oil gauge:
That's all folks!
The depot was built in 1982 on the site of the former Midland Ironworks on Midland Road. The site’s 17,000 square metre footprint depot consisted of maintenance and cleaning facilities, a large canteen and admin offices. At its peak level of utilisation, the depot was home to 230 drivers and 80 vehicles.
By 2016, the depot was subject to significant under-utilisation and the company was making a loss by continuing to operate the site. In October 2016 they announced plans to close the depot with operations and staff to move to the Olive Grove Road Depot in Sheffield, and Doncaster. There were also along 20 redundancies. The site formally closed in February 2017. The site was transferred to South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (MCA).
After First Bus moved out it was subsequently used for police firearms training and then in 2019 as a COVID-19 vaccination centre during the pandemic. The land is now up for sale, with or without demolition of the depot. The site was costing the MCA £160,000 per year for security and business rates. Rotherham MBC were engaged in discussions throughout 2021 on the depot’s future in relation to wider regeneration plans within the town. One potential uses of the power capacity on the site was to support electric vehicle charging. However, currently the site lies open and vandalised and recently was occupied by travellers who parked up in the depot’s car park.
2. The Explore
Pinned this as far back as September 2019 when @mookster gave us all a head’s up in the Lead or Rumour section. Then I forgot about it until I saw a report on the place. So off me and my non-forum exploring mate went for a look see. Entry was dead easy as the gates were wide open and the main building had multiple entry points. The site itself is massive. The massive maintenance and cleaning facilities are empty but impressive on their size alone. The office/admin area is pretty smashed up but the safes were interesting. The best bit, however, was the boiler room. Overall, an enjoyable mooch for an hour or so. Annoyingly, somehow, I managed to lose my brand-new torch on its first outing. Hey ho…
3. The Pictures
A quick couple of externals:
Main depot area:
This was quite clever:
Electrics:
Admin block:
Pretty trashed:
Room with safes in:
Safe mechanism:
Side room of the main area:
On to the second large building:
Some sort of pumps:
The inspection pits:
The boiler room:
Destination roll on floor and some familiar place names:
Close-up of boiler door:
And the inside:
Some interesting gear on the boiler room wall:
A KDG oil gauge:
That's all folks!
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