I’m excited to put this one up, as I know the only other report on here is done by @HughieD, so it’ll be good to get some more shots up here. It’s also my first successful attempt at a film report so here’s goes!
History
(Taken from HughieD’s report if that’s alright)
The “Record” trademark was first registered by C & J Hampton in in 1909. Charles and Joseph toolmakers and iron-founders located at Eagle Foundry in Livingston Road, Sheffield. Previously they started up in 1898 manufacturing marlin spikes and specialist castings. By 1908 they had became a limited company, producing engineering and woodworking vices, woodworking sashs, T-bar and floor cramps, wrenches and jacks.
Then in January 1931 they introduced a range of woodworking planes, based on the popular patterns of the Stanley Tool brand, in their No. 10 catalogue. Their factory relocated to Ouse Road in Attercliffe, Sheffield. In October 1934, C & J Hampton they purchase the manufacturing rights from John Rabone & Sons Ltd. for their iron planes and spoke shaves range. The firm moved into new premises at Parkway Works in 1963. In 1972, C & J Hampton Ltd. merged with William Ridgway Ltd. to form Record-Ridgway Tools Ltd and took on the manufacturing of wood boring tools, which was Ridgway’s core business. The in March 1981, AB Bahco, a Swedish chisel & woodworking tool company, bought Record-Ridgway Tools renaming it Record Holdings in 1985, before renaming it again three years later to Record Marples Ltd.
During the 1990’s it was renamed a further three times; Record Tools Ltd in 1991, Record Holdings plc in 1993 and then Record Tools Ltd. Record Tools but was bought in 1998 by Irwin, the American conglomerate which closed the Parkway factory in Sheffield in 2003/2004 and moved production to China.
Explore
All shots taken on a Praktica MTL-50, with Kodak Gold 200
It’s fascinating to me how there are 2 separate sites in Sheffield that are very connected essentially, with it being the same base company, yet the Record-Ridgeway Tools site is much more well known and well covered. I had attempted when we were in Sheffield but figured there was no easy way in, nor was it worth the effort given how graffed and trashed it looked inside, so we decided to save that time and energy for the Darnall site instead, as it seemed much more interesting, especially as it’s one that hasn’t been covered much or in a while. An empty factory space, nearly free of graffiti or damage? Can’t complain.
After the long bus up, and failing at a lot of other sites around Sheffield, we approached the front gate and found a lot more fences were on site. Had to get a shot of the iconic gates, even if it wasn’t the best as we were getting a lot of funny looks from workers
Getting on site was easy enough, bosh
We didn’t check out a lot of the outer buildings as they seemed empty, and we wanted to save the time (and film) for the main building, although I couldn’t resist taking shots of the chimney
After a bit of fumbling about with the fence maze, we had gotten it. I apologise about the photos being a bit fuzzy, as I’m still getting used to the camera, but figured I may as well include them
This area was very interesting to me, a lot of flooding in places and cobwebs that stretched from the floor to the ceiling, spiders scuttling about every corner, it was wonderful, a shame I didn’t use my camera flash more often as I would’ve loved to capture it a bit better. We found the stairs early on, but figured we’d come back to it after checking out the lower levels.
A very dark area, the middle had a cobweb that spanned nearly the whole room!
Heading back through the water to the stairs, we head on up to the main factory floor.
I loved this area personally, as I’ve said before I’m a fanatic for any sorts of overhead crane, and I loved how this was shaped, it added a bit of geometry to my shots. The colours were lovely too, I loved how much the blue and yellow stands out against the white and grey walls and framework
I do also love how some of these photos came out too, they may not be the most well composed but I love how they feel, my Grandad worked in a lot of factory spaces and these feel just like the photos he showed me of them, with the vintage film feel too, I’m very happy with these
Next room over was even better, as something HughieD didn’t put in his report is the massive warehouse space, which was even better than the main floor in my opinion.
Im very annoyed with myself not getting more shots around here, as the lighting in my opinion was great, as well as there being details dotted around that would’ve been wonderful to take a photo of, such as a swing out hoist, and a lot of AC units
Crane appreciation, that’s my shtick
And my friend for size comparison, it was a pretty bloody large room
And of course, twattery from my friend this time
Figured I’d send it off with a shot everyone’s gotta do with a mirror. I’ve never been one to want to show my face on here but I figure there’s enough hidden to make it okay! Stay safe people
