History
🏚️ British Acheson Electrodes Limited (BAEL), founded in 1915 and based in Sheffield, were manufacturers of amorphous carbon and graphite electrodes.
BAEL was taken over by US company Union Carbide, which opened their graphite plant in the late 1970s on a huge plot located at Middlewood in Sheffield. Union Carbide manufactured carbon electrodes for the steel industry, graphite rods for the nuclear industry and other related products.
The carbon rods were screwed together to make the electrodes used in arc furnaces. These electrodes were used in sets of three, and connected through a huge transformer to the National Electricity Grid.
In 1976, the plant employed 850 people, most of which were local Sheffield residents. However, in the 1980s the Sheffield factory was suffering from the recession, as well as the decline of the steel industry and other industries that bought it's carbon-based products.
It's demise was propelled by the disaster at Union Carbide's refinery in Bhopal, India in 1984. Due to a tank leak, over 500,000 local people were exposed to the highly toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas. In total, atleast 3787 people died from the incident and subsequent fallout.
The graphite plant closed in Sheffield because it lost the nuclear business as the UK stopped building AGR reactors. Union Carbide had other graphite plants in Spain, Italy and France. They felt they could supply the UK market from France, and so closed Sheffield. The French plant is still operating. In 2008, part of the Sheffield site was being used for Airsoft.
Explore
I can only find reports from this place from quite a few years back so decided to post up some recent pics, explored on my own on a nice dry day.
I had not heard of this explore until i saw someone elses pictures on FB so decided to give it a go with it being quite local, access was easy but i had heard there was security on the site as some parts of the land are being used by other companies so I was a bit cautious, admiring all the grafitti on my way along I got to the side of a raised road and looked across to see the guard about 5 metres away from me
I was almost certain he had seen me so I turned around and waited for him to say something, as i turned round again to accept my fate I saw him further on down the road amazingly he hadn't seen me and I knew now I had the maximum time to have an explore before he came for another round 
The site is pretty big but most of it has been demolished, i'm not sure why they chose to leave half the factory, the water tower and the chimneys standing but it made for a nice couple of hours exploring.
The long walk
Just a couple of the many bits of grafitti on the way down
One of the remaining chimneys, pretty sure the rungs have been removed now
View from the top of the water tower showing the half factory remaining
It was absolutely filthy up here with black dust all over every surface
Into the big part with the remains of some foundations for some machinery
It was a mission to get up here without any ladders
As i was about to leave i spotted this in the rubble of the demolished part
It led to the bottom of one of the chimneys
I then noticed i wasn't alone.....there was a rabbit stuck down here, i tried to get it and release it but it was too quick and frightened so i made it a ramp out of bricks to the way out so hopefully it made it out safely
🏚️ British Acheson Electrodes Limited (BAEL), founded in 1915 and based in Sheffield, were manufacturers of amorphous carbon and graphite electrodes.
BAEL was taken over by US company Union Carbide, which opened their graphite plant in the late 1970s on a huge plot located at Middlewood in Sheffield. Union Carbide manufactured carbon electrodes for the steel industry, graphite rods for the nuclear industry and other related products.
The carbon rods were screwed together to make the electrodes used in arc furnaces. These electrodes were used in sets of three, and connected through a huge transformer to the National Electricity Grid.
In 1976, the plant employed 850 people, most of which were local Sheffield residents. However, in the 1980s the Sheffield factory was suffering from the recession, as well as the decline of the steel industry and other industries that bought it's carbon-based products.
It's demise was propelled by the disaster at Union Carbide's refinery in Bhopal, India in 1984. Due to a tank leak, over 500,000 local people were exposed to the highly toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas. In total, atleast 3787 people died from the incident and subsequent fallout.
The graphite plant closed in Sheffield because it lost the nuclear business as the UK stopped building AGR reactors. Union Carbide had other graphite plants in Spain, Italy and France. They felt they could supply the UK market from France, and so closed Sheffield. The French plant is still operating. In 2008, part of the Sheffield site was being used for Airsoft.
Explore
I can only find reports from this place from quite a few years back so decided to post up some recent pics, explored on my own on a nice dry day.
I had not heard of this explore until i saw someone elses pictures on FB so decided to give it a go with it being quite local, access was easy but i had heard there was security on the site as some parts of the land are being used by other companies so I was a bit cautious, admiring all the grafitti on my way along I got to the side of a raised road and looked across to see the guard about 5 metres away from me
I was almost certain he had seen me so I turned around and waited for him to say something, as i turned round again to accept my fate I saw him further on down the road amazingly he hadn't seen me and I knew now I had the maximum time to have an explore before he came for another round The site is pretty big but most of it has been demolished, i'm not sure why they chose to leave half the factory, the water tower and the chimneys standing but it made for a nice couple of hours exploring.
The long walk
Just a couple of the many bits of grafitti on the way down
One of the remaining chimneys, pretty sure the rungs have been removed now
View from the top of the water tower showing the half factory remaining
It was absolutely filthy up here with black dust all over every surface
Into the big part with the remains of some foundations for some machinery
It was a mission to get up here without any ladders
As i was about to leave i spotted this in the rubble of the demolished part
It led to the bottom of one of the chimneys
I then noticed i wasn't alone.....there was a rabbit stuck down here, i tried to get it and release it but it was too quick and frightened so i made it a ramp out of bricks to the way out so hopefully it made it out safely
