Report - Record Ridgway / Marples Tools Ltd - Sheffield - February 2014

[The_Raw]

This is the former William Ridgway Tools factory site. William Ridgway and Sons company of Sheffield, manufacturers of augers, bits, wood-boring and motorising tools, was founded in 1878 and became a Private company in 1909, these works were founded in the 1930s. William Ridgway Tools merged first of all with Record Tools in 1974 to form Record Ridgway Tools Ltd. Record were another Sheffield company who were renowned for the quality of their vices and industrial clamps. Following the merger Record Ridgway Tools Ltd was made up of 14 UK Companies with 5 overseas companies. A later merger with a woodwork tools company called Marple (which was part-owned by Record and Ridgeway respectively before their original merger) led to the company becoming known as Record Marples Tools. Record Marples was taken over by the Swedish hardware manafacturer AB Bahco in 1982. Despite a management buyout leading to the company reverting to British ownership in 1985 the company struggled financially and following administration was acquired by U.S. based Irwin Tools in 1998 who have since moved production to China in recent years.

I explored this gaff with ACID- REFLUX a couple of months back, to be honest there isn't much evidence of the old tool making business left, it's more of an art gallery now which is absolutely fine by me, especially given that some of Phlegm's best work is hidden in there It's a dirty old place with more pigeons than you can shake a stick at and there's a couple of cool rooftops to get up on. All in all a good wander for a couple of hours with some epic graffiti inside.

 

[dave]

Have to agree about the graff in this place Phlegm at his best i reckon plus there's a few more there which i dont remember from my visit 3 or 4 years ago. Actually i was wandering around near there recently and nearly popped in but had a train to catch nice pics thanks for sharing.

 

[Telf]

Nice 1 some really cool graf to see here..

 

[ACID- REFLUX]

Nice ones matey

I nearly posted mine the other day as well. Although mine didn"t show my cars registration off

Was the funniest entrance of the weekend though, when my body failed me dramatically, i blame falling through St vincents floor

I think that Pigeon was the shot of the place though, stood on that mountain of crap @ 15 years worth

Was a good weekend all round matey, on your rise to Stardom ......... ( that"s a joke mate

It certainly looks different from the other night with all the P"tutes wandering around it lol

 

[H1971]

nice one, some jolly good shots there

 

[Will Knot]

Some great wall art in there mate.....is their more than one The Raw ....quadruplets or something :crazy cos ya can really get about mate Great pics and nice report, thanks for sharin'

 

[andyg1983]

Nice shots mate.

I headed down here on Friday but thanks to some little shites dumping and smashing up a car behind the police were around so thought better of it.

 

[krissigalores]

That graffitti is great to be honest.. Must have taken ages. If only all graff looked this good ha.
That water near that orange door looks a little like you'd catch something if you got a nail through your foot, in it's midst..

 

[The_Raw]

Thanks for the comments, glad some people appreciate the decent graff as some of these guys aren't your typical graffiti artists, Phlegm especially is amonst the elite of the international street art world these days, the character with the beard is by an artist called Eugene Booms

@Will Knot I'm pretty sure you've been cloned a couple of times yourself mate haha! Keeping myself busy that's all

 

[The_Raw]

Pretty sure that's a guy who goes by the name Kid Acne

 

[Paradox]

oooh nice graf going on there! Good pics too Thanks for sharing.

 

[Songsofthedoomed]

That's some stunning work in there, never seen them before nice one