Visited with Seffy & Wellington. - I'm sure Seffy's thread gives a low down on the rather eventful ending to the day in the FOD!
I love this place.. when I was 10-12 years old school trips used to involve staying in the YHA hostel on the other side of the river from the factory. I'm pretty sure, in part, those days of looking at this vast factory from outside the fence resulted in me getting hooked into exploring years later. The first time I visited the insides some 6 odd years ago now you could just wonder in from the original train line that used to serve the factory till the late 50's. These days it's a bit tighter and a bit more trashed. Since that first visit I went back several times in 2008 including one rather funny/not so funny day where one member of the exploring group drove his car through what he though was a relatively small puddle (it was 4ft deep and wrote the car off in seconds)
The place is huge, a relic of the busy industrial past of the forest of dean. That said aside from the beautiful administration office building it's a pretty non eventful set of buildings. I'm sure I'll be back again.. perhaps this time armed with a bag of dog biscuits
A brief history - 1912 Lydbrook Cable Works established, purchased by Edison Swan in 1925 - factory sold to reed paper group in 1966 and corrugated paper was made here untill 2003 when the then current owners, SCA group, closed the factory. Since then the current owners have tried to turn the site into a business park with no success. For 20 years now the place has sat decaying slowly. Given the beauty of the surrounding area perhaps the best outcombe would be for nature to reclaim the site.
You can find more on my website here, along with previous trips..
Edison Swan Cable Works, Lower Lydbrook | Whatevers Left | UK Urbex
I love this place.. when I was 10-12 years old school trips used to involve staying in the YHA hostel on the other side of the river from the factory. I'm pretty sure, in part, those days of looking at this vast factory from outside the fence resulted in me getting hooked into exploring years later. The first time I visited the insides some 6 odd years ago now you could just wonder in from the original train line that used to serve the factory till the late 50's. These days it's a bit tighter and a bit more trashed. Since that first visit I went back several times in 2008 including one rather funny/not so funny day where one member of the exploring group drove his car through what he though was a relatively small puddle (it was 4ft deep and wrote the car off in seconds)
The place is huge, a relic of the busy industrial past of the forest of dean. That said aside from the beautiful administration office building it's a pretty non eventful set of buildings. I'm sure I'll be back again.. perhaps this time armed with a bag of dog biscuits
A brief history - 1912 Lydbrook Cable Works established, purchased by Edison Swan in 1925 - factory sold to reed paper group in 1966 and corrugated paper was made here untill 2003 when the then current owners, SCA group, closed the factory. Since then the current owners have tried to turn the site into a business park with no success. For 20 years now the place has sat decaying slowly. Given the beauty of the surrounding area perhaps the best outcombe would be for nature to reclaim the site.
You can find more on my website here, along with previous trips..
Edison Swan Cable Works, Lower Lydbrook | Whatevers Left | UK Urbex
