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Report - - Fullers Earth Factory - January 2017 | Industrial Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Fullers Earth Factory - January 2017

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NaZzAtAzEr

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Last week, I went on my second outing to the factory, over a year after my first visit, to show a friend around. First post pls be friendly :)

Some Copy+Pasted History:
A greyish, mineral-rich clay, fuller's earth is well-known for its absorbent qualities and has many uses ranging from powder cosmetics to 'mud' used for drilling oil wells. Its best known use however is as cat litter, of which millions of bags are sold every year. Most of this is now imported from the Americas but until recently, fuller's earth was quarried from the Lower Greensand strata at Woburn (Beds.), at Baulking (Oxon.) and at Redhill (Surrey). On the Redhill deposit, the most successful quarry operating at the turn of the century was the Copyhold Works of the Fuller's Earth Union Ltd, established c.1860-70. Initially supplying the woollen trade, demand later shifted to the growing chemical and commodity sector with customers in the 1920s-40s including the Southern Oil Company Ltd, British Glues and Chemicals Ltd and Price's Patent Candle Co.

In 1954 the works, by now employing 780 men, were bought by chemical company Laporte Industries. Production was stepped up to meet increasing demand and a large factory consisting of kilns, granulators, blungers, silos and transit systems on several floors was built. A large quarry existed to the east and in the 1970s this strange landscape stood in for various alien worlds in the BBC's Doctor Who series. In the 1980s, the Copyhold site was sending loose earths and packaged cat litter around the world. By 1995, however, due to falling profits it was announced that the company would close 10% of its 100 plants. Copyhold fell victim the following year and the Laporte Group was broken up with the majority share sold to an American private equity firm trading as Rockwood Holdings Inc. After the production lines were switched off, the 119 acre pit was purchased for use as a landfill site by Biueuue

Our experience:
We went down the main drive, only to find that the main gates were wide open, much to our surprise, which meant we could easily walk in. First views show that not much has changed since December 2015. Fencing stacked on the floor at the back entrance, suggesting that new fences will be put up shortly to act as a "deterrence".

I hope I haven't made it too long

The Pictures:

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Walking down the entrance, immediately revealing the factory hidden by the trees and the houses.

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The morning we went, it was really cold, and the amount of ice everywhere was really cool
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Now into the factory:
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Heaps of rusted iron everywhere.
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And now to end this report with the necessary graffiti
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Overall, I enjoyed this visit, despite "seeing some people", I would recommend to visit this.

Thank you for reading my first report :D
 

Xan_Asmodi

Cave Monster
28DL Full Member
Not bad at all for a first report, much better than mine was ;)

The only recommendation I'd give you is to try and get some wider shots where possible to show the over all context of the site, the close in ones are good but if your report is the first people come across it'll leave them scratching their heads.
 

elhomer12

Maglite size T-rex, It's time for urbex!
28DL Full Member
Not bad at all for a first report, much better than mine was ;)

The only recommendation I'd give you is to try and get some wider shots where possible to show the over all context of the site, the close in ones are good but if your report is the first people come across it'll leave them scratching their heads.

I agree, however its nice to have a mix really. Its too easy to just zoom your lens out to the widest setting and leave it there, it takes a bit more skill to get decent shots at longer focal lengths. Although that's getting more into the photography side of things, and I'm aware exploring != photography and vice versa
 

Xan_Asmodi

Cave Monster
28DL Full Member
I agree, however its nice to have a mix really. Its too easy to just zoom your lens out to the widest setting and leave it there, it takes a bit more skill to get decent shots at longer focal lengths. Although that's getting more into the photography side of things, and I'm aware exploring != photography and vice versa

Very true, but you can't discount the documentarian side of exploring. Anyway, what I've commented isn't meant to distract from the content of the report itself, it's great to see this place is still standing!
 

NaZzAtAzEr

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
The only recommendation I'd give you is to try and get some wider shots where possible to show the over all context of the site, the close in ones are good but if your report is the first people come across it'll leave them scratching their heads.

Thanks :D
When I went I stupidly used my 50mm f/1.8 lens, next time I think I will bring both my 50mm and 24mm, or just stick with the 28-80mm. I'm more of a photographer as well.

For most of my shoot, I gave my friend my camera, while I used my matchbox pinhole camera (photos to come if wanted).
 
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