Report - Chamberlin & Hill Castings (S. Russell & Sons), Leicester - April 2017

[Exploring with Andy]

Formed in 1864 when Samuel Russell moved to Leicester from Loughborough, the brass and iron foundry based its head office, engineering and foundry operations on Bath Lane in Leicester. The company later became S. Russell & Sons when his two sons joined the firm in 1881.

As the company expanded, 1920 saw the opening of a further works in Bonchurch Street in the Woodgate area of Leicester. The Bonchurch Street foundry produced medium-sized castings, weighing 30-100kg primarily for the hydraulics and rail industries.

The Bonchurch Street foundry was taken over by Chamberlin & Hill Castings in 2004 and S. Russell & Sons were dissolved the following year. By 2016 demand for the products produced at the foundry had dwindled, and management announced it would be closing by the end of that year.

Furnaces
Starting where the raw materials and scrap metal arrive, the furnaces would melt it all down ready to be poured into moulds

The three electric furnaces

Looking across the furnaces with incoming scrap area to the right

The tiniest control room I've ever seen

This rather nice control panel was set to one side of the furnaces

Inductotherm control panel

Casting and moulding
This is where the molten metal is cast in moulds

Floor mould for larger castings

Hand mould shop

View attachment 736514
Hand mould shop

Handling and Blast Cleaning
The next stage of the process is to cool and open up the moulds and then clean up the castings

Moving through to the handling area

Sand and dust processing

Hunter HV Turntable

Hunter HV mould handling machine

Hunter HV mould handling machine

Continuous Tumblast cleaning machine

Beside the CT3

View towards offices

Roller conveyors

Roller conveyors with boxes for moving castings

Roller conveyors with boxes for moving castings

A large area was dedicated to shotblasting

Shotblasting machine

Core Shop
The core shop is where cores are machined. The cores create voids or spaces inside the castings, and are often destroyed in order to remove them when opening the moulds.

Eurocor machines in the core shop

Eurocor Corjob-H16

Inside the core machine

Machining area

Area for manual machining of cores

Racking with a few cores

Shelves of cores

Core store room

Continued....​

 

[Exploring with Andy]

Finishing and Dispatch
The building housing the heat treatment, finishing and dispatch facilities was a later addition, one of the last buildings to be built on the site.

Heat treatment area

Kiln for heat treatment

Finishing workstation

The finished product, although these castings were rejects

Workshops
As well as the production areas, there were a number of workshops to support the main functions of the factory

The main workshop was crammed full with machines

Main workshop

Main workshop

1922-45 regulations still on display

Items in office

Old office with various items

Bathhouse and Office Block
The bathhouse was quite an old building, with a few features remaining. Unfortunately nice skylights and features in the offices had been covered by suspended ceilings.

Bathhouse showers

Locker room

Small lab

Externals

Main buildings

Repton Street elevation

Ghost sign revealing the buildings origins as S. Russell & Sons Ltd, Ironfounders​

 

[Yorrick]

Another excellent report
I looked at it a couple of weeks back - too many neighbours for a coward like me!

 

[elhomer12]

Another excellent report
I looked at it a couple of weeks back - too many neighbours for a coward like me!

I remember being put off doing charlesworth at the other end of the street due to this too, too many windows, too many curtain twitchers That certainly went downhill eventually though.

 

[albino-jay]

Cracking report and belting pics as always dude.

Looks top this

 

[clebby]

Once again putting the rest of us to shame

 

[Baggy trousers]

That place is gorgeous! ! I'd be in my element here especially in the machine room!. Fantastic report that chap, wonder how long it will last like this??
Very well done for getting in!!

 

[silentwalker]

Lovely that man

 

[Urban_Tomb_Raider]

Nice place. Always walked past it and wondered if part of it was live or not. Went for a closer look today and saw two workers going in...

 

[The Wombat]

Nicely done
Excellent report

 

[dweeb]

Lovely stuff... not many like that left now!

Did the offices look tasty?

 

[Exploring with Andy]

Lovely stuff... not many like that left now!

Did the offices look tasty?

They would have been once, I caught a few little glimpses of the nice lantern skylights and Art Deco features that are now sadly covered by suspended ceilings, and cluttered with blandness below. As a result I didn't even bother shooting them.

 

[Raz]

Cracking stuff as always!

 

[Arcaned]

Great report and photos. I was on here for approx 10 minutes before I was escorted off by the friendly secca guy.

 

[The Lone Shadow]

Bloody hell - That is one of the best reports I've seen from anywhere in Leicester for ages! Well done.