History
Sheffield toolmaker William Ridgway founded his namesake tools company in 1878, which manufactured augers, bits, wood-boring and motorising tools. It became a private company in 1909 and was passed down through the Ridgway family. The current building was constructed some time in the 1930s. Record Tools were a fellow Sheffield manufacturing company with a reputation for producing quality clamps, wrenches, vices and cutters. They were set up by Charles J Hampton with the help of his two sons in the early 1950's.
William Ridgway Tools merged with Record Tools in 1972 to form Record-Ridgway Tools Ltd.
The company was taken over by Swedish hardware manufacturers AB Bahco in 1982. Three years later in 1985, the company returned to British ownership. However, it struggled financially and went into administration in 1998. It was acquired by US-based Irwin Tools in 1998, but was closed down soon after as the American owners moved production to China and the large factory, which over the years has adopted a number of names, including 'Oscar Works', 'Parkway Works' and 'Marple Tools', has stood derelict in Sheffield for over two decades.
The explore
Another explore from my trip up to Yorkshire and it really is a completely different world up here, there is just so much stuff up here and in Sheffield alone uve got derelict buildings within a 5min drive from each other, you just don’t see that here down south.
This 1 I had never heard of before until a few days prior to my trip which is a bit embarrassing as I was in Sheffield last summer exploring and I did the B braun medical building which is less than a minutes walk from here and can clearly be seen from B braun.
Anyway I wasn't sure if I was even going to attempt this 1 as I was on my own and the way in and out is not the easiest plus its absolutely huge and wasn't sure how dark it would be inside (didn’t particularly want to get lost inside in the dark.)
So I got got up on to the entry point to assess whether to go in or not then some how I dropped my bag which had my camera, lighting & keys in it straight in the 8 foot drop in to the building!.
Ffs! Looks like I’m going in then I thought!.
So I climbed in and dropped down in to the building still a little concerned if I could get back out!.
As I mentioned above this place is absolutely huge, unfortunately as I made my way through the building it became clear that a lot of the building is blocked off, I would say at best a quarter of this place is doable and with signs outside stating “risk of entrapment” I didn’t particularly want this to happen.
Although not much was accessible the parts that were were decent enough, although like a lot of industrial places its completely stripped inside.
Once I had got enough photos I made my way back to the entry point and after a couple of attempts I managed to get out then just as dropped down to the ground some bloke walks past, he looked a bit surprised to see me emerging from the building so I stopped and chatted with him, turns out he was a local explorer who was on his way to the courts and asked if I would like to tag along, sadly I was out of time and needed to head back home so I sadly declined his offer and we went our separate ways.
The Pictures
Sheffield toolmaker William Ridgway founded his namesake tools company in 1878, which manufactured augers, bits, wood-boring and motorising tools. It became a private company in 1909 and was passed down through the Ridgway family. The current building was constructed some time in the 1930s. Record Tools were a fellow Sheffield manufacturing company with a reputation for producing quality clamps, wrenches, vices and cutters. They were set up by Charles J Hampton with the help of his two sons in the early 1950's.
William Ridgway Tools merged with Record Tools in 1972 to form Record-Ridgway Tools Ltd.
The company was taken over by Swedish hardware manufacturers AB Bahco in 1982. Three years later in 1985, the company returned to British ownership. However, it struggled financially and went into administration in 1998. It was acquired by US-based Irwin Tools in 1998, but was closed down soon after as the American owners moved production to China and the large factory, which over the years has adopted a number of names, including 'Oscar Works', 'Parkway Works' and 'Marple Tools', has stood derelict in Sheffield for over two decades.
The explore
Another explore from my trip up to Yorkshire and it really is a completely different world up here, there is just so much stuff up here and in Sheffield alone uve got derelict buildings within a 5min drive from each other, you just don’t see that here down south.
This 1 I had never heard of before until a few days prior to my trip which is a bit embarrassing as I was in Sheffield last summer exploring and I did the B braun medical building which is less than a minutes walk from here and can clearly be seen from B braun.
Anyway I wasn't sure if I was even going to attempt this 1 as I was on my own and the way in and out is not the easiest plus its absolutely huge and wasn't sure how dark it would be inside (didn’t particularly want to get lost inside in the dark.)
So I got got up on to the entry point to assess whether to go in or not then some how I dropped my bag which had my camera, lighting & keys in it straight in the 8 foot drop in to the building!.
Ffs! Looks like I’m going in then I thought!.
So I climbed in and dropped down in to the building still a little concerned if I could get back out!.
As I mentioned above this place is absolutely huge, unfortunately as I made my way through the building it became clear that a lot of the building is blocked off, I would say at best a quarter of this place is doable and with signs outside stating “risk of entrapment” I didn’t particularly want this to happen.
Although not much was accessible the parts that were were decent enough, although like a lot of industrial places its completely stripped inside.
Once I had got enough photos I made my way back to the entry point and after a couple of attempts I managed to get out then just as dropped down to the ground some bloke walks past, he looked a bit surprised to see me emerging from the building so I stopped and chatted with him, turns out he was a local explorer who was on his way to the courts and asked if I would like to tag along, sadly I was out of time and needed to head back home so I sadly declined his offer and we went our separate ways.
The Pictures
Nice work!
