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Report - - Springfield Engineering Ltd., Stroud - February 2017 | Industrial Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Springfield Engineering Ltd., Stroud - February 2017

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clebby

( . Y . )
Regular User
Springfield Engineering, née T H & J Daniels Ltd., Stroud.

Visited with @Salmon and @Polo.

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Some history from the (now archived) Springfield Engineering website:

Springfield Engineering is a privately owned Limited Company founded in 1974 in Stroud, Gloucestershire with the aim of becoming a high precision sub contracting engineering facility. Over the years the business has exceeded the initial target of becoming a ‘one stop shop’ for our prestigious customers offering project management, development, machining, assembly and pressure testing along with supply chain management including material certification. Extensive customer focused experience has been gained in dealing with both one off’s and volume production in a fast moving engineering environment being either the 1st or 2nd Tier supplier.

Currently the company has a workforce of 50 highly skilled, proactive and motivated personnel working various shift patterns within a 35,000 square foot facility with over 30 CNC machine tools.

Brief History

1975
Springfield Engineering was founded as a subcontract machine shop, supplying turned parts

1979 The business relocated to larger premises in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire

Early 1980's Investment was committed to acquire capacity suitable for the medium to heavy machining market. During this period, market trends demanded the supply of sub-assemblies and complete machine builds, from design to delivery, which in turn led to the creation of a project management service, incorporating concept design, fabrication, machining and fitting

1986 Following its incorporation as a Limited Company, Springfield relocated once again to larger premises of 27,000 sq. ft

2000 As a result of the manufacturing recession of 1999/2000, the company repositioned itself and acquired the production assets of a major OEM of diesel engines. This acquisition included production machine tools, together with a skilled workforce and a management team

2001
Springfield expanded into a second building adding a further 25,000 sq. ft of manufacturing space


2002-2006
Ongoing expansion saw the company add a third building, extending capacity by a further 7,000 sq. ft and continuing to invest in assets and infrastructure

Springfield's appear have gone bust in 2012/13, with an auction of remaining equipment in July 2013.

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This doesn't cover the history of the buildings themselves, as Springfield's main factory is classically 50s and the older building (that they took over in 2001) dates back much further, with parts being Victorian. These were originally part of the T H & J Daniels factory, an engineering, millwrighting and foundry business founded by Thomas Daniels in 1840 which quickly grew. After the death of Lionel Daniels in 1956, the company became the London Stock Exchange listed Daniels plc, which was taken over by Unichrome International in 1968. Rather confusingly the 1950s building has also at one point been the premises for John Brown Plastics Machinery, a status that it held until John Brown closed in 1988.

I'll start with the 50s block that we entered first:

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Inside it's on two levels as per the lie of the land, and whilst stripped it is certainly dated

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Moving onto the older part of the Daniels works now

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Note the cast iron columns with evidence of line shaft runnings, really shows how old this half of the factory is

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Buttressing, again much older than it would first appear

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Rooftop toilets, very old-fashioned indeed

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I'll finish with a lousy shot of one of the boiler houses. Quite why the bed from the medical centre had been dumped in here to ruin my bastarding photo I don't know

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That's all for now bitches​
 
Last edited:

Salmon

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
You got some rather nice shots of that place.
Have you noticed the boiler has a face?
 

Speed

Got Epic Slow?
Regular User
For healths sake George! Was only thinking about this yesterday but couldn't remember where you said it was!
 

clebby

( . Y . )
Regular User
Thanks all

That's a seriously long winded sign about heaters!

Aye. I was tempted not to post it, as by the time one's resorted to photographing heaters and light switches one tends to be clutching at straws but I thought it was unusual enough to merit a photo.

Have you noticed the boiler has a face?

No because I'm not in a psychiatric ward
 

host

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Sweet report, i love these kind of places despite them been quite empty they still have great appeal about them..Looking on google earth there seems to be something on Dudbridge hill, any idea if its still their or what it is ??
 

clebby

( . Y . )
Regular User
Sweet report, i love these kind of places despite them been quite empty they still have great appeal about them..Looking on google earth there seems to be something on Dudbridge hill, any idea if its still their or what it is ??

Thanking you, and if you mean the place by Sainsburys it's Redler - given it a half-assed attempt in the past but definitely worth investigating further. Meant to give it a go this weekend actually but we spent more time here than expected.
 

Alcistra

28DL Member
28DL Member
I served my apprenticeship there and can still remember those cold toilets there was an indoor lake or cooling pond somewhere just below there it would be great if you could go back again soon as its due to be demolished.
 

Niterunner

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Jeez - I served most of my apprenticeship in the "50's" building. We lived on the opposite side of the road and we used to play on the site when it was being built. Daniel's used to make injection molding machinery and renovate old hydraulic presses. About 5 years later I'd joined the Royal Navy and saw one of their presses in a machinery space aboard H.M.S. Russell which was the harbour training ship in Portsmouth. Small world.

The lardies that the tea lady brought around at 09:30 were to die for.

Nostalgia overdose - where's me hankie... :thumb
 
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