Visited with Bigjobs and AndyJ.
the gannex material was once called "the savior of the yorkshire textile industry" and the kagan textiles site (broadlea and marshfield mills over the road) were once Ellands biggest employer. gannex was produced here till sometime in the 80s and broadlea mill was used for industrial units before the kagan family sold the site to the property developer clayton homes, who allready owned the marshfield mill site over the road.
a multitude of uses have been put forward for the site, including a new asda and bus station (2001/2) and later a conversion to flats and office / retail space. the owner (clayton homes) went into administration in august 2009 and the site is now in the ownership of pennine housing, who are debating what to do with the site next.
on the surface this place looks knackered, but there are some gems inside to those patient enough to persevere, including 100s of gannex coat patterns.......
pics.
Turned out to be a good day on the whole, with another one ticked off the list!!
B..
wikipedia said:Gannex is a waterproof fabric invented in 1951 by Joseph Kagan, a British industrialist and the founder of Kagan Textiles, of Elland, which made raincoats. Gannex raincoats were most famously worn by Prime Minister Harold Wilson.
After Wilson, then the opposition trade spokesman, wore a Gannex coat on a world tour in 1956, the raincoats became fashion icons, and were worn by world leaders such as Lyndon Johnson, Mao Zedong, and Nikita Khrushchev, as well as by Queen Elizabeth, the Duke of Edinburgh, and the royal corgis. In addition they were worn by Arctic and Antarctic explorers, Himalayan climbers, the armed services, and police forces in Britain and Canada. The success of the new fabric made Kagan a multi-millionaire.
the gannex material was once called "the savior of the yorkshire textile industry" and the kagan textiles site (broadlea and marshfield mills over the road) were once Ellands biggest employer. gannex was produced here till sometime in the 80s and broadlea mill was used for industrial units before the kagan family sold the site to the property developer clayton homes, who allready owned the marshfield mill site over the road.
a multitude of uses have been put forward for the site, including a new asda and bus station (2001/2) and later a conversion to flats and office / retail space. the owner (clayton homes) went into administration in august 2009 and the site is now in the ownership of pennine housing, who are debating what to do with the site next.
on the surface this place looks knackered, but there are some gems inside to those patient enough to persevere, including 100s of gannex coat patterns.......
pics.
Turned out to be a good day on the whole, with another one ticked off the list!!
B..