Actually i'm lying a bit, this wasn't a foundry, it was a rolling mill that rolled specialised steel strip, mainly for use in bandsaw blades I think. Another plant with a long history formerly known as the Nelson/Albion Ironworks and later Albion Steel Strip Mills. More recently Trident Steelworks and J. B. and S. Lees seems to have been the accepted name. Lees has had many owners over the years with the most recent being our friend Mr Gupta of the Liberty group who of course has closed the site in a thoroughly unorganised manner and has left it sitting half derelict for the last 6+ months..
Myself and Dave have had our eye on the works for a good while now, initially because of a handful of small derelict looking buildings to the rear. We hadn't really gotten around to actually checking them out until earlier this year however and when we did we were somewhat surprised to arrive and find half the site shut up and idle. The site spreads over quite an area and is bi-sected by a canal with only a covered footbridge link. It seemed the rolling mill side of the canal might have closed unexpectedly but at the time we weren't too sure so took it carefully. The smaller derelict buildings turned out to actually be a 'somewhat' in use stores and workshop at the time but glancing through the windows it all looked very promising with everything being ancient and seemingly also covered in quite a few cobwebs. We scoped out a bit of a blatant route in but decided it was better to wait for an evening. Unfortunately when we returned a few days later to put our plan into action the situation seemed to have changed and there were new skips and vehicles in the yard so we decided to give it a miss.
Not too long after this i broke my foot and was subsequently out the game for a few months and while laying in bed one day i got a message from bubblehead advising that there were now piles of dirt in front of the gates and asking if I had been and had a look? I had of course but with a barely working limb and a baby due any day all I could do about it now was hobble down on my crutches and get frustrated at the seeming ease of the exploration that now confronted me. Dirt piled in front of gates so high you could virtually step over them, doors seemingly swinging in the breeze but annoyingly also a couple of guards milling about giving me the eye as I limped up and down outside the fence.. Oh and did I mention the whole site was now definitely closed!?
A few more months passed, baby got born, foot healed a bit more and before you know it I'm back at work and attending a training course in West Brom. With an early 3.30 finish there was only really one place I was going to go for the rest of the afternoon but I was fully expecting to have missed the best of it by then and be disappointed.. How wrong I was! Not only was the site still all there, it appeared nothing much had changed. To my surprise I found it to be almost completely intact in there! Apart from some stripped out transformers (pikeys i guess) it was pretty much as the day it closed.
To date I have managed to cover the main bulk of the rolling mill and its adjacent stores and workshops (sadly workshop machinery seemed to have gone missing since our earlier visit!). The other side of the canal contains the main office block, presumably testing labs and presumably distribution/ warehousing. Not going to be as interesting I feel but still, i would like to see it at some point so hopefully there will end up being a part two to this report one day. Currently that other side of the site is more secure and also seems to be home to more men that pop in and out of the shadows on a whim but who knows how long that will last.. I will give it a go when I get a chance!
Myself and Dave have had our eye on the works for a good while now, initially because of a handful of small derelict looking buildings to the rear. We hadn't really gotten around to actually checking them out until earlier this year however and when we did we were somewhat surprised to arrive and find half the site shut up and idle. The site spreads over quite an area and is bi-sected by a canal with only a covered footbridge link. It seemed the rolling mill side of the canal might have closed unexpectedly but at the time we weren't too sure so took it carefully. The smaller derelict buildings turned out to actually be a 'somewhat' in use stores and workshop at the time but glancing through the windows it all looked very promising with everything being ancient and seemingly also covered in quite a few cobwebs. We scoped out a bit of a blatant route in but decided it was better to wait for an evening. Unfortunately when we returned a few days later to put our plan into action the situation seemed to have changed and there were new skips and vehicles in the yard so we decided to give it a miss.
Not too long after this i broke my foot and was subsequently out the game for a few months and while laying in bed one day i got a message from bubblehead advising that there were now piles of dirt in front of the gates and asking if I had been and had a look? I had of course but with a barely working limb and a baby due any day all I could do about it now was hobble down on my crutches and get frustrated at the seeming ease of the exploration that now confronted me. Dirt piled in front of gates so high you could virtually step over them, doors seemingly swinging in the breeze but annoyingly also a couple of guards milling about giving me the eye as I limped up and down outside the fence.. Oh and did I mention the whole site was now definitely closed!?
A few more months passed, baby got born, foot healed a bit more and before you know it I'm back at work and attending a training course in West Brom. With an early 3.30 finish there was only really one place I was going to go for the rest of the afternoon but I was fully expecting to have missed the best of it by then and be disappointed.. How wrong I was! Not only was the site still all there, it appeared nothing much had changed. To my surprise I found it to be almost completely intact in there! Apart from some stripped out transformers (pikeys i guess) it was pretty much as the day it closed.
To date I have managed to cover the main bulk of the rolling mill and its adjacent stores and workshops (sadly workshop machinery seemed to have gone missing since our earlier visit!). The other side of the canal contains the main office block, presumably testing labs and presumably distribution/ warehousing. Not going to be as interesting I feel but still, i would like to see it at some point so hopefully there will end up being a part two to this report one day. Currently that other side of the site is more secure and also seems to be home to more men that pop in and out of the shadows on a whim but who knows how long that will last.. I will give it a go when I get a chance!
Externals
Workshop and Stores Building
Workshop and Stores Building
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