Once the largest manufacturer of rolled rod and wire solid cylindrical steel sections in Europe, this XXL Steel mill closed in 2009. Producing over 1m tonnes of Steel a year, manufacturing figures took a dive thanks to cheapo Chinese steel and our Indian friends (no longer welcome in France incidentally) took their production elsewhere.
We had a look in here early on a Saturday morning, afterwards rocking up to the market in the local town square looking like we'd just spent a day working in a steel mill... I also fell down a hole in the dark, it wasn't funny to start with but then it was.
Whiteboard documenting decline in production from over 1m tonnes most years to just 45k tonnes in the first three months of 2009 leading to "fermature"