Report - Bridgewater paper mill May 10

[Squirrell 911]

I heard about this place from Bigjobs as he has busted this a few days earlier but not reported it cos he wanted to get some more pics (not suprising really as this place is hoooooooge) . He showed me a pic or two and I was amazed by it. First day off work and I met up with him and spark and we hit it with a vengance.

History on the place.

Generations of the Poole family lived here for nearly 600 years from the 13th century to the early 1820's. The family were actively involved during the civil war. After which Poole Hall was put on market and sold many times, to many different people. Over many years of occupancy after the Poole family the house slowly decayed. The hall was then sold to Bowater's where a paper mill was constructed between 1921 and then of which came into production in 1931. The grand hall was later destroyed to allow Bowater's to build an extension, although farmyards and farmhouses stood until 1956 which were then demolished for further Bowater mills.

Fast forward 89 years.......

2 February 2010: Tom Jack, Roy Bailey and Alan Bloom from Ernst & Young LLP have today been appointed Joint Administrators to Bridgewater Paper Company Limited (BPCL)
BPCL, a recycled paper mill, based in Ellesmere Port, Liverpool, employed 300 people. The business has a production capacity of 220,000 tonnes per annum and sells both UK and Canadian produced paper.
Recently, 271 employees were temporarily laid off after news that the mill had gone into administration and that production at the plant had ceased at the plant.
PEEL Ports has bought the former Bridgewater Paper Mill site in Ellesmere Port on the 2nd June.
The owner of Port of Liverpool and Manchester Ship Canal has purchased the 75-acre site for an undisclosed sum.

Basically its going to get stripped and made into storage.

Here's a few pics of what will be getting pulled out of this place.

Waste paper goes up this conveyor.

Then pulped

and sent into these bad boys to be de inked.

And lovely nasty chemicals added for japes and wheezes.

Which is controlled from here. One of several control rooms

And with controll rooms comes labs for testing production quality.

Paper rolling machine shop floor.

Then we get bunged through a paper rolling machine to make lots of lovely paper for newsprint to go on.

And sliced up for more managable size rather than 7 meters wide.

Now for a place this size it will need a maintenence department which is also on a large scale.

I have more pictures as this place is huuuuge. Thanks for an ace day out Bigjobs and Spark, it was appreciated

 

[SeanMcGrath]

I heard about this place from Bigjobs as he has busted this a few days earlier but not reported it cos he wanted to get some more pics (not suprising really as this place is hoooooooge) . He showed me a pic or two and I was amazed by it. First day off work and I met up with him and spark and we hit it with a vengance.

History on the place.

Generations of the Poole family lived here for nearly 600 years from the 13th century to the early 1820's. The family were actively involved during the civil war. After which Poole Hall was put on market and sold many times, to many different people. Over many years of occupancy after the Poole family the house slowly decayed. The hall was then sold to Bowater's where a paper mill was constructed between 1921 and then of which came into production in 1931. The grand hall was later destroyed to allow Bowater's to build an extension, although farmyards and farmhouses stood until 1956 which were then demolished for further Bowater mills.

Fast forward 89 years.......

2 February 2010: Tom Jack, Roy Bailey and Alan Bloom from Ernst & Young LLP have today been appointed Joint Administrators to Bridgewater Paper Company Limited (BPCL)
BPCL, a recycled paper mill, based in Ellesmere Port, Liverpool, employed 300 people. The business has a production capacity of 220,000 tonnes per annum and sells both UK and Canadian produced paper.
Recently, 271 employees were temporarily laid off after news that the mill had gone into administration and that production at the plant had ceased at the plant.
PEEL Ports has bought the former Bridgewater Paper Mill site in Ellesmere Port on the 2nd June.
The owner of Port of Liverpool and Manchester Ship Canal has purchased the 75-acre site for an undisclosed sum.

Basically its going to get stripped and made into storage.

Here's a few pics of what will be getting pulled out of this place.

Waste paper goes up this conveyor.

Then pulped

and sent into these bad boys to be de inked.

And lovely nasty chemicals added for japes and wheezes.

Which is controlled from here. One of several control rooms

And with controll rooms comes labs for testing production quality.

Paper rolling machine shop floor.

Then we get bunged through a paper rolling machine to make lots of lovely paper for newsprint to go on.

And sliced up for more managable size rather than 7 meters wide.

Now for a place this size it will need a maintenence department which is also on a large scale.

I have more pictures as this place is huuuuge. Thanks for an ace day out Bigjobs and Spark, it was appreciated

My dad Tom McGRATH was chief maintenance engineer from around 1968/69 at Bowaters to when he retired in 1985, when he was 62. Those big blue machines that transformed the rolls of paper into thousands of paper sacks were called hoppers. He used to go over to Düsseldorf in Germany to buy them on behalf of Bowaters. They would be installed during the summer shutdown. He had fought against Germans in WW2 as a soldier in Irish Guards & drove a tank, he was sent across after D Day landings. Despite all that he was an admirer of German engineering and it’s quality. He was a Germanophile.

 

[Bigjobs]

It's always good to hear from people with a link to these places.

Thanks for sharing

 

[westernsultan]

Another one of my former customers - many years ago [1984-1986]- thanks for posting the pictures