Plevin & Sons (Weldems) - Mossley - Feb 2025
HISTORY
Weldems, founded in 1963 in Mossley, used disused railway siddings for the site This included welding workshop, using power from the nearby mills and setting up a large work hall on the southern side of the shed, and an outdoor storage yard on the northern side. The main work hall spanned two ten-ton gantry cranes, as well as a large swing hoist in the side of the workshop.
The site was ready for use in 1967 and was used to create oil tanks for tanker trucks and petrol stations, and was later used to create mining supports and headstocks for collieries, many of these were used in Australia. Reading through stories from this place, their apprenticeships were amazing and it was a great work environment. The company even gave everyone Christmas hampers for the holidays!
The company was bought out in 1994 and the sidings was then purchased by R Plevin’s LTD to be used as one of their depots. They produced everything from biomass production to sawdust and shavings for pets. The site was less and less used, finally shutting in 2023, where they relocated to the Yorkshire depot and left this site disused.
December 2023 travellers moved onto the for a bit, to be finally moved on by the council and police, possibly why the offices etc have been fairly stripped.
MY EXPLORE
I first had a look at this site in early 2024, travellers had just been evicted so had a feeling it may not be used too much. At this point I found out there was still security on site mainly to keep the travellers at bay. Like many places it was put on the back burner for me and forgotten about.
Was good to see that TalkingMask paid the site a visit recently, I had wondered what it looked like inside (also plagiarised your history).
As usual a wet and windy day locally, not a day to be on the hills and had already had my fill of safety brews. A visit here seemed a sensible option and rekindle my love of derelict spaces.
I wasn’t disappointed, a large site, lots of open space in the buildings made up for the lack of anything major on the production or office side of things.
Must remember not to explore on my own on very windy days, gusts above 50mph weren’t an issue, it was the creaking roof, doors, cladding, loose metal fixings all making noises, was sure there were voices for the first part of the explore, but didn’t bump into any metal fairies so presume it was just all in my head.
Photos in no particular order, more how I went around the site dodging the imaginary metal thieves.
First view inside.
You soon get a sense of just how big the buildings are, quite photographic too. Photos were all handheld, ISO cranked up.
The office block is trashed, small rooms with nothing in. However it did give access to the roof space of the original mill building and not a bad view from above.
Well that's it, a pleasant stroll and almost worth going back with a tripod as it is photogenic.
Cheers,
TLR.
HISTORY
Weldems, founded in 1963 in Mossley, used disused railway siddings for the site This included welding workshop, using power from the nearby mills and setting up a large work hall on the southern side of the shed, and an outdoor storage yard on the northern side. The main work hall spanned two ten-ton gantry cranes, as well as a large swing hoist in the side of the workshop.
The site was ready for use in 1967 and was used to create oil tanks for tanker trucks and petrol stations, and was later used to create mining supports and headstocks for collieries, many of these were used in Australia. Reading through stories from this place, their apprenticeships were amazing and it was a great work environment. The company even gave everyone Christmas hampers for the holidays!
The company was bought out in 1994 and the sidings was then purchased by R Plevin’s LTD to be used as one of their depots. They produced everything from biomass production to sawdust and shavings for pets. The site was less and less used, finally shutting in 2023, where they relocated to the Yorkshire depot and left this site disused.
December 2023 travellers moved onto the for a bit, to be finally moved on by the council and police, possibly why the offices etc have been fairly stripped.
MY EXPLORE
I first had a look at this site in early 2024, travellers had just been evicted so had a feeling it may not be used too much. At this point I found out there was still security on site mainly to keep the travellers at bay. Like many places it was put on the back burner for me and forgotten about.
Was good to see that TalkingMask paid the site a visit recently, I had wondered what it looked like inside (also plagiarised your history).
As usual a wet and windy day locally, not a day to be on the hills and had already had my fill of safety brews. A visit here seemed a sensible option and rekindle my love of derelict spaces.
I wasn’t disappointed, a large site, lots of open space in the buildings made up for the lack of anything major on the production or office side of things.
Must remember not to explore on my own on very windy days, gusts above 50mph weren’t an issue, it was the creaking roof, doors, cladding, loose metal fixings all making noises, was sure there were voices for the first part of the explore, but didn’t bump into any metal fairies so presume it was just all in my head.
Photos in no particular order, more how I went around the site dodging the imaginary metal thieves.
First view inside.
You soon get a sense of just how big the buildings are, quite photographic too. Photos were all handheld, ISO cranked up.
The office block is trashed, small rooms with nothing in. However it did give access to the roof space of the original mill building and not a bad view from above.
Well that's it, a pleasant stroll and almost worth going back with a tripod as it is photogenic.
Cheers,
TLR.
