The History
The History of this place is a little odd. There’s a lot of misinformation as to what companies were based here and there appears to be a few variations on trading names.
So far we have found :-
Holtite lifting tackle
Holt, Williams and Co., Ltd
Preston Adams
Isaiah Preston
Between then they appear to have manufactured everything from Anchors, to chains to lifting gear and cranes.
But that’s about all I can find.
There’s a little more info in @TranKmasT 2015 report that can be found here
https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/jubilee-works-cradley-heath-june-2015.97048/
Wikipedia offers this small amount of history regarding the surrounding area but that’s it
Cradley achieved prominence in the 19th century as a centre of iron chain making, though the most important centre was the adjacent (but distinct) Cradley Heath. The chain was made on a hearth by hammering cut lengths of red-hot wrought iron rod into oval links, one link passing through the next to form a cable. The anchor chain for the Titanic was made at Cradley Heath.
Chain making was not the first or only iron trade carried on in Cradley and the neighbouring towns. For hundreds of years nails had been made in the Black Country, and many thousands of men and women were employed in the trade. It was the staple industry until the mid-19th century. Nail making by hand went into decline after the introduction of machine made nails in about 1830 and many nail makers adapted their smiths and forges, and redirected their skills to making chain.
It does however neglect to mention that Cradley Heath is the utter shit pit of the universe. Cradle of Filth as @clebby referred to it a number of times and quite rightly so.
The Explore
Whilst chatting with Clebby on one of our WhatsApp chats he dropped in the idea of checking out this place and linked me to the above report. Now back in 2015 TranKmasT said that the offices etc were still used. It seems that this is still very much the case and the yard is also used to store skips for random builders.
How do we know this?
We had to hide from one for an hour while he lazily unloaded his truck into a skip, he was obviously paid by the hour lol
The first part we decided to check out was the proper old school offices
Check out the bannisters!!!!
Yes they are anchors
These tiles were pretty awesome too.
Some proper 70’s styling going on here
Then we found the store room which was by far my favourite part.
The History of this place is a little odd. There’s a lot of misinformation as to what companies were based here and there appears to be a few variations on trading names.
So far we have found :-
Holtite lifting tackle
Holt, Williams and Co., Ltd
Preston Adams
Isaiah Preston
Between then they appear to have manufactured everything from Anchors, to chains to lifting gear and cranes.
But that’s about all I can find.
There’s a little more info in @TranKmasT 2015 report that can be found here
https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/jubilee-works-cradley-heath-june-2015.97048/
Wikipedia offers this small amount of history regarding the surrounding area but that’s it
Cradley achieved prominence in the 19th century as a centre of iron chain making, though the most important centre was the adjacent (but distinct) Cradley Heath. The chain was made on a hearth by hammering cut lengths of red-hot wrought iron rod into oval links, one link passing through the next to form a cable. The anchor chain for the Titanic was made at Cradley Heath.
Chain making was not the first or only iron trade carried on in Cradley and the neighbouring towns. For hundreds of years nails had been made in the Black Country, and many thousands of men and women were employed in the trade. It was the staple industry until the mid-19th century. Nail making by hand went into decline after the introduction of machine made nails in about 1830 and many nail makers adapted their smiths and forges, and redirected their skills to making chain.
It does however neglect to mention that Cradley Heath is the utter shit pit of the universe. Cradle of Filth as @clebby referred to it a number of times and quite rightly so.
The Explore
Whilst chatting with Clebby on one of our WhatsApp chats he dropped in the idea of checking out this place and linked me to the above report. Now back in 2015 TranKmasT said that the offices etc were still used. It seems that this is still very much the case and the yard is also used to store skips for random builders.
How do we know this?
We had to hide from one for an hour while he lazily unloaded his truck into a skip, he was obviously paid by the hour lol
The first part we decided to check out was the proper old school offices
Check out the bannisters!!!!
Yes they are anchors
These tiles were pretty awesome too.
Some proper 70’s styling going on here
Then we found the store room which was by far my favourite part.
