Originally visited with @Dave W back in the summer of 2020. It wasn't too long after the first covid lockdown and we had heard the site was due to be redeveloped for housing. We were not really 100% sure what the situation was but decided to give it a bit of a recce on our way elsewhere. We rocked up on a Tuesday afternoon to find the gates locked, car park deserted and a planning permission notice stapled to the gate. Promising! After a while we made it round the back and again it all looked to be going well. Its was very overgrown and unloved and peering in the windows at the back we could see it was still full of stuff and looked quite frankly derelict! It was tricky to get in but eventually we managed it. However as soon as we entered the first room something didn't feel too right, it was another premier plating jigs or west brom spring! On the one hand it all the signs of being long abandoned but on the other there were stacks of brand new stock and freshly welded work that hadn't yet had a chance to go at all rusty.. The next room we found a van and starting to doubt our initial assessment of the place we run it through the DVLA computer and sure enough it came back taxed and tested. Then we phoned the phone number on google maps and what do you know the phones still connected! I guess it's not as derelict as it looks we thought but by that point we had kind of been round it all anyway!
Fast forward a year or so and finally planning permission has been granted and the phoneline is now dead so I returned for another look. Building still there but sadly stripped bare now with diggers poised at the gates. I guess it's time for a report! Apologies for not posting sooner but I wouldn't want to encourage people to explore semi live stuff like this deliberately. Obviously a small company probably run by one guy. Dont massively agree with upsetting people like that on purpose!
What can I say about the works itself tho? Only that it's probably the best small scale 50s factory I've ever clapped eyes on! Loved it from the second we pulled up out front and it was just as good inside. Loved the 50s signage, original sectric clocks still ticking away making good time and just about everything else about it. Really sad to see it demolished, especially as I'm looking for a place just like this for myself one day.. such a waste just to house a few more immigrants!
I cant find much information about the company at all but they must have been there since it was built. I guess the demand for 'foundry requisites' has declined in recent years and so had the workforce. They appeared to manufacture some bits and pieces. They were welding ladles together and pressing some strange little items which I think we decided were for holding cores in position?? In addition they seemed to keep a stock of stuff like shovels and wheelbarrows and just the general kind of thing you might find in a foundry but could also probably just go buy from any DIY store nowerdays. As for what's happened to them now I dont know. I cant really find any reference to them online but judging by whats been taken and what's been left I'd hazard a guess they have moved to a different unit somewhere.
Fast forward a year or so and finally planning permission has been granted and the phoneline is now dead so I returned for another look. Building still there but sadly stripped bare now with diggers poised at the gates. I guess it's time for a report! Apologies for not posting sooner but I wouldn't want to encourage people to explore semi live stuff like this deliberately. Obviously a small company probably run by one guy. Dont massively agree with upsetting people like that on purpose!
What can I say about the works itself tho? Only that it's probably the best small scale 50s factory I've ever clapped eyes on! Loved it from the second we pulled up out front and it was just as good inside. Loved the 50s signage, original sectric clocks still ticking away making good time and just about everything else about it. Really sad to see it demolished, especially as I'm looking for a place just like this for myself one day.. such a waste just to house a few more immigrants!
I cant find much information about the company at all but they must have been there since it was built. I guess the demand for 'foundry requisites' has declined in recent years and so had the workforce. They appeared to manufacture some bits and pieces. They were welding ladles together and pressing some strange little items which I think we decided were for holding cores in position?? In addition they seemed to keep a stock of stuff like shovels and wheelbarrows and just the general kind of thing you might find in a foundry but could also probably just go buy from any DIY store nowerdays. As for what's happened to them now I dont know. I cant really find any reference to them online but judging by whats been taken and what's been left I'd hazard a guess they have moved to a different unit somewhere.
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