Current State
Unfortunately for anyone looking to visit the site now its been completely fortified with very high amounts of security including camera turrets and guard dogs roaming the private areas of the property. You can still walk along a public footpath that cuts straight through the grounds with the huge warehouse buildings to the left and the smaller office buildings to the right. I wouldn't recommend trying to get into the site at all though due to the insane levels of security
The History
Hepworth refractories, also known as Storr's Bridge Works was a former brick factory located to the east of Sheffield next to the Loxley Fisherys. It's also been utilized as a Carblox factory in the 70s in addition to the Loxley Steel works. After falling into abandonment the site was purchased in 2006 by Bovis Homes who hoped to turn the area into a housing estate. Alongside their purchases of the site many construction fences, CCTV and signage was placed around the site which can still be seen to this day surrounding and inside the structure in places. After being turned down due to local opposition Bovis Homes pulled out of the site and removed security including CCTV, speaker system and resident guard. The site appears to be currently owned by Patrick Properties who also plan to build a housing estate on the land. So far destruction of the former factory buildings have not taken place.
If you're looking for more history of the site check out this fantastic post from HughieD on the Hepworth Refractories. He does a much better job of explaining its history than I can!
The Explore
I and a mate visited the buildings in April of 2023 back when the buildings had practically no security and was incredibly easily accessible by a crack in the fence put up by Bovis Homes in 2006 back who were trying to demolish the site and develop it into new homes. I've gone more into this in the history section. The site comprises of multiple huge warehouse buildings in addition to a canteen and tons of office spaces and truly is a breathtakingly massive abandoned complex.
The largest of the warehouses around the size of a 3 story building - One of the breathtakingly huge warehouses that stretches on forever - What appears to be the old workers canteen
Unfortunately not much is still there on the inside of the buildings with the majority of machinery and such stripped away. Interestingly however, we did find a small cabin type room in one of the large warehouses that appeared to have actual documents from when the building was operational (not sure if these are authentic however). What do we reckon? There are a couple levers and tracks about the place but not much to shout about. Here's some stuff we found:
Possibly some papers left over from when the place was in operation? - A very old, heavy duty switch. I can report it unfortunately doesn't move much - Some machine of some sorts? No clue what it could have been used for
We also found some really cool relics of the past such as a Ross Henley Ice Cream sticker which seems to still be in operation and a bunch of track sleepers and even a bit of track still semi intact
An old Ross Henley ice cream sticker located in the workers canteen - Partially intact rail tracks with missing machinery - Bare concrete sleepers in another room - Another shot of the track still in place from a lower perspective
With the complex having so many different buildings theres too much to go through all of it really. We didn't even manage to get into all of the buildings even after visiting the area twice (partly due to it looking pretty dangerous in places and the sheer size of the complex). We did take a look into what appears to be the old office block with some really claustrophobic rooms throughout and not much light other than this room that now features an exposed roof. How open plan!
Possibly where the kitchen used to be? Just off the serving counter so possible? - No clue what this room could have been but it wasn't in a good state - Creepy windowless bathrooms rotting away - Just off of what could have been the kitchen
There's still 3 more warehouses I've not even spoken about on top of the ones we didn't even get into / I didn't photograph. These include this incredibly odd building split across two drastically different levels. I can't imagine what caused this so if you have any idea on what could have been in this room let me know! Unfortunately the lack of any furniture or machinery carries through though.
The strange building split across two levels with tons of concrete blocks - Another smaller warehouse with much lower ceilings to the right of the complex - Yet another empty warehouse in the centre filled to the brim with graffiti
I don't have much else to add other than how much of a shame it is that this building is no longer explorable at all. There was an unlimited amount of interesting and creative graffiti throughout and some truly huge spaces I personally have never experienced before. It'll be a shame to lose it if it is turned into a housing estate but I suppose its just a waiting game to see what happens. Perhaps it'll be turned down again for planned houses and security will vanish again. I doubt that though as last time we were there they were retarmacking the horrific old road leading down to the site and fisheries and with the mad levels of security now it's looking like investment will be hitting the site in the not so distant future.
All thats left to do is dump the rest of the photos below. Oh and also please let me know when/if the site no longer has security as it'd be great to revisit as from other posts I've noticed theres locker rooms and everything that I've missed. Other than that, enjoy the photos!
There's still a couple more I have but I'm unable to add them due to the 30 attachment limit. If enough people want them I'll make another post with those. Let me know your experiences visiting the site if you have and what I've missed! First post on here so if you guys have any feedback or recommendations feel free to share below.
Cheers!
Unfortunately for anyone looking to visit the site now its been completely fortified with very high amounts of security including camera turrets and guard dogs roaming the private areas of the property. You can still walk along a public footpath that cuts straight through the grounds with the huge warehouse buildings to the left and the smaller office buildings to the right. I wouldn't recommend trying to get into the site at all though due to the insane levels of security
The History
Hepworth refractories, also known as Storr's Bridge Works was a former brick factory located to the east of Sheffield next to the Loxley Fisherys. It's also been utilized as a Carblox factory in the 70s in addition to the Loxley Steel works. After falling into abandonment the site was purchased in 2006 by Bovis Homes who hoped to turn the area into a housing estate. Alongside their purchases of the site many construction fences, CCTV and signage was placed around the site which can still be seen to this day surrounding and inside the structure in places. After being turned down due to local opposition Bovis Homes pulled out of the site and removed security including CCTV, speaker system and resident guard. The site appears to be currently owned by Patrick Properties who also plan to build a housing estate on the land. So far destruction of the former factory buildings have not taken place.
If you're looking for more history of the site check out this fantastic post from HughieD on the Hepworth Refractories. He does a much better job of explaining its history than I can!
The Explore
I and a mate visited the buildings in April of 2023 back when the buildings had practically no security and was incredibly easily accessible by a crack in the fence put up by Bovis Homes in 2006 back who were trying to demolish the site and develop it into new homes. I've gone more into this in the history section. The site comprises of multiple huge warehouse buildings in addition to a canteen and tons of office spaces and truly is a breathtakingly massive abandoned complex.
The largest of the warehouses around the size of a 3 story building - One of the breathtakingly huge warehouses that stretches on forever - What appears to be the old workers canteen
Unfortunately not much is still there on the inside of the buildings with the majority of machinery and such stripped away. Interestingly however, we did find a small cabin type room in one of the large warehouses that appeared to have actual documents from when the building was operational (not sure if these are authentic however). What do we reckon? There are a couple levers and tracks about the place but not much to shout about. Here's some stuff we found:
Possibly some papers left over from when the place was in operation? - A very old, heavy duty switch. I can report it unfortunately doesn't move much - Some machine of some sorts? No clue what it could have been used for
We also found some really cool relics of the past such as a Ross Henley Ice Cream sticker which seems to still be in operation and a bunch of track sleepers and even a bit of track still semi intact
An old Ross Henley ice cream sticker located in the workers canteen - Partially intact rail tracks with missing machinery - Bare concrete sleepers in another room - Another shot of the track still in place from a lower perspective
With the complex having so many different buildings theres too much to go through all of it really. We didn't even manage to get into all of the buildings even after visiting the area twice (partly due to it looking pretty dangerous in places and the sheer size of the complex). We did take a look into what appears to be the old office block with some really claustrophobic rooms throughout and not much light other than this room that now features an exposed roof. How open plan!
Possibly where the kitchen used to be? Just off the serving counter so possible? - No clue what this room could have been but it wasn't in a good state - Creepy windowless bathrooms rotting away - Just off of what could have been the kitchen
There's still 3 more warehouses I've not even spoken about on top of the ones we didn't even get into / I didn't photograph. These include this incredibly odd building split across two drastically different levels. I can't imagine what caused this so if you have any idea on what could have been in this room let me know! Unfortunately the lack of any furniture or machinery carries through though.
The strange building split across two levels with tons of concrete blocks - Another smaller warehouse with much lower ceilings to the right of the complex - Yet another empty warehouse in the centre filled to the brim with graffiti
I don't have much else to add other than how much of a shame it is that this building is no longer explorable at all. There was an unlimited amount of interesting and creative graffiti throughout and some truly huge spaces I personally have never experienced before. It'll be a shame to lose it if it is turned into a housing estate but I suppose its just a waiting game to see what happens. Perhaps it'll be turned down again for planned houses and security will vanish again. I doubt that though as last time we were there they were retarmacking the horrific old road leading down to the site and fisheries and with the mad levels of security now it's looking like investment will be hitting the site in the not so distant future.
All thats left to do is dump the rest of the photos below. Oh and also please let me know when/if the site no longer has security as it'd be great to revisit as from other posts I've noticed theres locker rooms and everything that I've missed. Other than that, enjoy the photos!
There's still a couple more I have but I'm unable to add them due to the 30 attachment limit. If enough people want them I'll make another post with those. Let me know your experiences visiting the site if you have and what I've missed! First post on here so if you guys have any feedback or recommendations feel free to share below.
Cheers!
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