Site found by Urbanfox, and the first things I heard about it was 'its pretty big, lots of big wharehouses, mint, not trashed, surrounded by industrial bits of teeside, not sure what it was used for, its big!'
This visit was from much earlier in the year july I think, present were...
Crossy, Vivo, Urbanfox, Wellwasp & SpenceSDM
This place has gone by many names, started in life as Cerebos Salts as a seam of nice tasty rock salt was found below the site. The seam was taped and salt brine was in production until the 70's. The site was taken over by Rank-Hovis and used for salt production, eventually splitting out into Centura foods (a division of Rank-Hovis?) which produced many household names, Paxa, Bisto, Sharwoods, Keiller & Robertsons up until the eventual closure in 2002.
From what I've heard/seen it was a slow wind down, with selected parts of the site being closed down and eventually the last few workers being let go in sep 2002 (?). The remaining equipment, well virtually everything was sold off shortly after at auction held on site.
The original idea was to camp out overnight inside one of the VAST drive-thru freezers, but either the rank smell of 6year old curry stained factory or the 2 pikey/random tooled up visitors in camo made us rethink that idea.
Then we lost wellwasp, took nearly 2hours to bloody find him, the place was vast, as demo is now almost complete from what I've heard
this is probably the only exterior shot I took
Vast expanses of nothing inside.
plant chimney/exhaust was a fair size, but no ladder to the top
employees breakout area, this is at the exact opposite end of the site to the cafeteria, half the employees break time would have been taken up by the walk over there!
going down...
more orange plastic stuff
industrial goodness
Reminder of the many household names produced here.
rank cheeselike half decade out of date curry 'sauces' stew in the window of one of the labs.
research/presntation kitchen, there were at least 2 of these, both well appointed and barely used
The microbiology labs were well stripped leaving just these signs
part of the vast conveyor system that did laps around the many levels and buildings of the site, most gone in the auctions following closure
in the workshops. The site had a large spares room full of electronic switchgear, motors, drives, spare belts, signs, and then large spacious well appointed workshops, metal lathes, band saws (one mega one), drills, about 10 welding cubicles and a fair sized joinery shop, all lit with massive expanses of glass skylighting.
mmmmmm bet it would taste nice
lurking at the back of the workshops is an office with this mega array of Signal Boards and boxes FULL of signal colour things. Defantly the best toy for tired explorers.
The one that Wellwasp made, albeit by this point about to call him in as missing presumed dead following over 2hours of frantic searching in the midst of the night :freak
stepping outside mental views over teesides industrial centre were available in every direction. This sorta out of focus shot was one of the oil refineries.
By now we'd run out of light, and I couldn't be bothered lightpainting this monster space, flashgun sort of did the job
SCHE Schematic anyone? Seems to be the plumbing for salt brine, or product or hot water, either way, looks crazy! However NO mention of the swiimming pool. The only reason we could think the factory had a swimming pool like basin (about 20mx8mx3m deep) was salt brine holding tank. or maybe a monster rice cooker?
Plan found in the workshops the following day, this shows the overview of the site.
monster industrial sized curry cookers, nom nom nom
moving upstairs to the cafe & admin areas
contiued in next post....
This visit was from much earlier in the year july I think, present were...
Crossy, Vivo, Urbanfox, Wellwasp & SpenceSDM
This place has gone by many names, started in life as Cerebos Salts as a seam of nice tasty rock salt was found below the site. The seam was taped and salt brine was in production until the 70's. The site was taken over by Rank-Hovis and used for salt production, eventually splitting out into Centura foods (a division of Rank-Hovis?) which produced many household names, Paxa, Bisto, Sharwoods, Keiller & Robertsons up until the eventual closure in 2002.
From what I've heard/seen it was a slow wind down, with selected parts of the site being closed down and eventually the last few workers being let go in sep 2002 (?). The remaining equipment, well virtually everything was sold off shortly after at auction held on site.
The original idea was to camp out overnight inside one of the VAST drive-thru freezers, but either the rank smell of 6year old curry stained factory or the 2 pikey/random tooled up visitors in camo made us rethink that idea.
Then we lost wellwasp, took nearly 2hours to bloody find him, the place was vast, as demo is now almost complete from what I've heard
this is probably the only exterior shot I took
Vast expanses of nothing inside.
plant chimney/exhaust was a fair size, but no ladder to the top
employees breakout area, this is at the exact opposite end of the site to the cafeteria, half the employees break time would have been taken up by the walk over there!
going down...
more orange plastic stuff
industrial goodness
Reminder of the many household names produced here.
rank cheeselike half decade out of date curry 'sauces' stew in the window of one of the labs.
research/presntation kitchen, there were at least 2 of these, both well appointed and barely used
The microbiology labs were well stripped leaving just these signs
part of the vast conveyor system that did laps around the many levels and buildings of the site, most gone in the auctions following closure
in the workshops. The site had a large spares room full of electronic switchgear, motors, drives, spare belts, signs, and then large spacious well appointed workshops, metal lathes, band saws (one mega one), drills, about 10 welding cubicles and a fair sized joinery shop, all lit with massive expanses of glass skylighting.
mmmmmm bet it would taste nice
lurking at the back of the workshops is an office with this mega array of Signal Boards and boxes FULL of signal colour things. Defantly the best toy for tired explorers.
The one that Wellwasp made, albeit by this point about to call him in as missing presumed dead following over 2hours of frantic searching in the midst of the night :freak
stepping outside mental views over teesides industrial centre were available in every direction. This sorta out of focus shot was one of the oil refineries.
By now we'd run out of light, and I couldn't be bothered lightpainting this monster space, flashgun sort of did the job
SCHE Schematic anyone? Seems to be the plumbing for salt brine, or product or hot water, either way, looks crazy! However NO mention of the swiimming pool. The only reason we could think the factory had a swimming pool like basin (about 20mx8mx3m deep) was salt brine holding tank. or maybe a monster rice cooker?
Plan found in the workshops the following day, this shows the overview of the site.
monster industrial sized curry cookers, nom nom nom
moving upstairs to the cafe & admin areas
contiued in next post....
