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Report - - Jubilee Works – Cradley Heath – Birmingham – September 2018 | Industrial Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Jubilee Works – Cradley Heath – Birmingham – September 2018

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mockney reject

Moderator
Staff member
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The History

The History of this place is a little odd. There’s a lot of misinformation as to what companies were based here and there appears to be a few variations on trading names.

So far we have found :-

Holtite lifting tackle

Holt, Williams and Co., Ltd

Preston Adams

Isaiah Preston

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Between then they appear to have manufactured everything from Anchors, to chains to lifting gear and cranes.

But that’s about all I can find.

There’s a little more info in @TranKmasT 2015 report that can be found here

https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/jubilee-works-cradley-heath-june-2015.97048/

Wikipedia offers this small amount of history regarding the surrounding area but that’s it

Cradley achieved prominence in the 19th century as a centre of iron chain making, though the most important centre was the adjacent (but distinct) Cradley Heath. The chain was made on a hearth by hammering cut lengths of red-hot wrought iron rod into oval links, one link passing through the next to form a cable. The anchor chain for the Titanic was made at Cradley Heath.

Chain making was not the first or only iron trade carried on in Cradley and the neighbouring towns. For hundreds of years nails had been made in the Black Country, and many thousands of men and women were employed in the trade. It was the staple industry until the mid-19th century. Nail making by hand went into decline after the introduction of machine made nails in about 1830 and many nail makers adapted their smiths and forges, and redirected their skills to making chain.


It does however neglect to mention that Cradley Heath is the utter shit pit of the universe. Cradle of Filth as @clebby referred to it a number of times and quite rightly so.


The Explore

Whilst chatting with Clebby on one of our WhatsApp chats he dropped in the idea of checking out this place and linked me to the above report. Now back in 2015 TranKmasT said that the offices etc were still used. It seems that this is still very much the case and the yard is also used to store skips for random builders.

How do we know this?

We had to hide from one for an hour while he lazily unloaded his truck into a skip, he was obviously paid by the hour lol

The first part we decided to check out was the proper old school offices

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Check out the bannisters!!!!

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Yes they are anchors

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These tiles were pretty awesome too.

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Some proper 70’s styling going on here

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Then we found the store room which was by far my favourite part.

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mockney reject

Moderator
Staff member
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After we ventured into the yard and stumbled into what looked like a live foundry but on further inspection it looked like it hadn’t seen used for ages. It was almost as if it had been set up as an example of how they use to make things. Or maybe even just used to make occasional one offs.

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Once we had finished dicking about in the yard we had a look at what appeared to be the main “jobbing” shop. This confused us again

Was it in use?

Was it derp?

When was the last time it had been used?

The modern welders and compressor led us to believe it may have been used in the last few years but not for a while as most of the building had a fine layer of dust on it.

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TranKmasT

"You BOY!
Regular User
It's good to see more from here. The larger workshop in the last group of shots eluded me first time around. Hopefully I'll give another try some time.
Did you by any chance notice the other couple of factories at the other end of the road near the railway crossing?
 

mockney reject

Moderator
Staff member
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It's good to see more from here. The larger workshop in the last group of shots eluded me first time around. Hopefully I'll give another try some time.
Did you by any chance notice the other couple of factories at the other end of the road near the railway crossing?


on the opposite side to the Bus Shelter company?
 

clebby

( . Y . )
Regular User
Did you by any chance notice the other couple of factories at the other end of the road near the railway crossing?

I think you mean Judge Works (on one side of the road) and that ‘Cradley Heath factory centre’ on the other side. Both now piles of rubble unfortunately :(
 

Speed

Got Epic Slow?
Regular User
Theres some derpy bits in the chainmakers at the end of the road too (second link). The whole area is a bit like this where you dont really know if its used or not. A bit like George Dykes/WBS etc.. Was slightly pissed off Judge Works went before i got a look cous there migth have been some good bits in there hidden away too,
 

mookster

grumpy sod
Regular User
Fantastic to see this one again, thought it was gone myself given the lack of exposure it's had!
 
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