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Report - - Rolls Royce Site Derby | Industrial Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Rolls Royce Site Derby

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knighthawk

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Today I wantend get into the Rolls Royce Site on Nightingale Road as builders are moving in strast the work rebuilding site
When I got there the builders where there too good in one sense as I did not need climb any fences I deicede to just work into building act casual and calm and this worked fine and thought got away with this apporch even talked couple lads working in one of rooms until the end. I was making my last sweep and heard guy shouting at me it turned out to be site forman he asked me watt I was doing I said taking photos then for who I said for myself he could not get this in his head even said he could take my sd card i replied if need call police please go head. Then he took me to entrance off site that was it.
So no great extnal shots but great internal



HISTORY The Rolls Royce Company acquired the Nightingale Road site in Derby in March 1907 with a view to developing an automobile factory, and building work started in that year. The first assembly buildings, beginning with what is referred to as No.1 Shop in the original documentation, were constructed of prefabricated steel-frames supplied by Handysides of Derby, and were developed to specifications provided by Henry Royce, designed to allow rapid expansion of the factory to a modular format. As the factory expanded the factory offices were housed in part of No.1 Shop, but in 1912, a purpose built range of offices were developed on an area of land between the factory and the Nightingale Road frontage. The building, designed by R. Weston and Son, was completed in November 1912, having been built in 2 stages. The main entrance was sited at the northern end of the plainly-detailed 2 storied building, and remained as such until 1938 when a new entrance hall designed by architects Arthur Eaton and Son was developed in the remodelled central portion of the 1912 office range. At the same time, a colonnaded porte cochere and an enclosed entrance was added to the Nightingale Road frontage at its northern end, and is believed to have been intended to allow for the collection of completed vehicles from the site. In the 1930's, the building was widened along its entire length at the rear, leaving a narrow access way between the frontage buildings and the factory workshops to the rear. During the late C20 the interior of the office range was refurbished and remodelled, and although the Board Room survived in its 1930's form, the fixtures and fittings of most other areas were replaced, and false ceilings were inserted. The central entrance hall and principal staircase remain unchanged as does the original staircase at the north end of the building. In its fully developed form, the factory occupied a massive footprint, and has been surrounded by housing development on all sides, with entrances into the site developed from these surrounding streets. To the south of Nightingale Road schools and other community facilities were developed to serve the expanding industrial suburb developing around the works. The changes in the pattern of manufacture and the relocation of the main business site to Osmaston have driven the current regeneration proposals for the now mostly vacated Nightingale Road site.

The Rolls Royce factory was designed to produce the Silver Ghost car, but demand in the First World War for aircraft engine manufacture led to the development at the Derby works of the first Rolls Royce aero engine. The company's first aero engine was the Eagle, based on the Silver Ghost engine, built from early 1915. Around half the aircraft engines used by the Allies in World War I were made by Rolls-Royce. The Eagle engine was fitted to nearly 50 aircraft types requiring over 4500 engines to be manufactured in Derby and overseas. In 1919 it powered the Vickers Vimy in which Alcock and Brown crossed the Atlantic non-stop, for the first time.

By the late 1920s, aero engines made up most of Rolls-Royce's business. Henry Royce's last design was the Merlin aero engine, which came out in 1935, although he had died in 1933. This was developed in Derby from the R engine, which had powered a record-breaking Supermarine S.6B seaplane to almost 400 mph in the 1931 Schneider Trophy. The Merlin was a powerful V12 engine and was fitted into many World War II aircraft: the British Hawker Hurricane, Supermarine Spitfire, de Havilland Mosquito (two-engine), Avro Lancaster (four-engine), Vickers Wellington (two-engine). It also transformed the American P-51 Mustang into possibly the best fighter of its time, its Merlin engine built by Packard under licence. Over 160,000 Merlin engines were produced. The Merlin crossed over into military vehicle use as the Meteor, powering the Centurion tank among others.

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The Future

Bleeding More Houses
 

burker

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Hi Knighthawk, that's really interesting! I wish I'd visited. The window looks amazing.
I'm actually researching lights that were removed from the site and was wondering if it might be possible to use some of your photos. Would you mind?
Cheers
 

clebby

( . Y . )
Regular User
@burker knighthawk hasn't logged in for going on 2 years, so unless he has email notifications switched on you'll be lucky if you get a response.

My advice would be to use the photos anyway if it's for research, and credit him in the caption. I'm sure that if it's for a good cause knighthawk wouldn't mind. Others on here might have relevant photos too..
 

andyg1983

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
I was responsible for drawing and 3D modelling the refurbishment of this. Great to see it.
 

ACID- REFLUX

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
@knighthawk is a she by the way. But again not heard anything from her for nearly 2 years now & no reply to Phone/texts around the time of vanishing. Hopefully it was nothing untoward.
 

JohnPDerby

28DL Member
28DL Member
Any more photos from this visit? Some of the Public Address system show equipment built by a friend of mine. Incidentally - in the description there is mention of the "colonnaded porte cochere" - This was not where cars were handed over (bear in mind that RR produced rolling chassis) - it was a memorial garden area for Claude Johnson - the first Mnaging Director. He is now acknowledged by a cafe in that building - called "Claude's"
 

bagpuss_24

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
I visited this site on a regular basis while it was still operational - this during the late 80s and well into the 1990s.
I worked for a security alarm company AFA-Minerva - who became Thorn (now ADT).
We used to service a Burglar Alarm system that was installed in the site Payroll Office/Bank. Each of the RR sites had a small bank, operated by Barclays - where workers would collect their Wages (pre bank transfer days!) and also cheques/expenses/travellers cheques could be dealt with.
The Bank was located in the main building to the RH side of the main front Art-Deco entrance. (The Alarm boxes - there were two) - should be still on the wall in the older photos).

The banks had one large safe encased in a wooden cabinet that was laced with wire, and switches protecting it. They were painted Blue for some reason.
The alarm systems were linked directly to a local Police Station (Cotton Lane), and also a link to the main Security Gatethouse on the main road and their main fire station control room on Sinfin A site at Victory Road.

On site, there was also a small Fire/Ambulance station and First Aid point.

Each Main site had a small fire station - the Main one was on A-site on Victory Road; this and the one on Mainworks was Manned 24/7.
All of the fire alarm systems from all RR sites around Derby were connected to the Fire Station control room on Sinfin A site; as were a majority of Burglar Alarm systems.

We also looked after equipment at RR sites at Mountsorrel in Leicestershire and at Hucknall in Nottinghamshire.

Great to see this place again, and that the building/window is still in place.
 

Speed

Got Epic?
Regular User
What I dont get is, this whole factory sat abandoned for several years around 2010 and I didnt even consider going for a look. I mean wtf?? Different world back then.
 

bagpuss_24

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
What I dont get is, this whole factory sat abandoned for several years around 2010 and I didnt even consider going for a look. I mean wtf?? Different world back then.
I gather there were "issues" surrounding the site with planning permission, and also certain sections of the site had to be cleaned/decontaminated before it was demolished.
At the far end of the site - facing a Railway line, was a "Plating Shop" which had huge vats full of acid and various nasty chemicals and overhead pipe work over roadways.
We had to replace all of the steel conduit in there for the security alarm systems as it kept eroding away due to the Atmos.
Then there was the obligatory Asbestos checks and removal.
There were also issues with English Heritage over the Office Block, stained glass window; as the building was supposed to be listed. Heritage were worried it would all vanish.

The RR sites were covered in Asbestos; which by the mid 90s was slowly being removed as places were gradually referbed.
Their office block on Moor Lane was lined with Blue Asbestos as fire protection above the ceiling voids - lethal stuff.

It was fascinating, that by even the latter part of the 1990s - these old RR sites were a good example on how they would have looked and operated in the 1950s - not a lot had changed perhaps since then.

Not sure if Sinfin B site is still there, on Victory Road, but that had a 1950s lavish office block with a rotating open fronted, constantly moving passenger lift in the front entrance!
It was next to the RR Sports Hall and Welfare Pavillion.
 

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