This is somewhere I'm surprised hasn't been done more if I'm honest as it's located in what I'd call the heart of one of the UK's 'rust belts'. At it's peak Stanton Ironworks near Ilkeston used to be one of the countries largest iron foundries occupying a huge swathe of land in the north Midlands. Visited on a day of industrial dirtiness with @Landie_Man
Some history pieced together from various sources. There is loads of stuff out there, I could be digging for days but this is the briefest of summaries.
It was established in 1855 with an office staff of four, and three small furnaces, a small foundry, iron fields at Stanton and in the neighbourhood parish of Dale Abbey, and the Ironstone Bell pits at Babbington. The partners were Messrs George and John Crompton - brothers and partners in the firm of bankers of Crompton and Evans - Mr Newton and Mr. Barber. At first the pig iron was made entirely from local ore, but in 1865 Northamptonshire ores were introduced into the company's mixtures, and a little later iron mines in Leceistershire and Northamptonshire were acquired and developed. In 1878 the pipe foundry, now probably the largest in Great Britain, if not in the world, was started under the management of Mr James Chambers. Ten years prior to this date the company sunk its first colliery at Teversal, the Pleaseley Colliery followed in 1873, and The Silverhill in 1878. As indicating the progress of the firm it may be mentioned that in the twenty years immediately prior to 1914, the output of coal had increased by 94 per cent, the ironstone output by 38 per cent, the pig iron output by 29 per cent and the cast iron pipe output by 184 per cent.
Circa 1914 the company had 7000 people on its pay roll - 3000 at Stanton, the same number at the collieries and 1000 at the ironstone mines.
In 1951 it was nationalised and became part of the Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain.
In 1960 the company was taken over by Stewarts & Lloyds Ltd. and was merged with Staveley Iron & Chemical Co. to form the Stanton & Staveley company.
In 1967 Stanton & Staveley was incorporated into British Steel.
During the early 1980s Stanton became part of the French Pont-a-Mouson Group and later part of Saint Gobain, manufacturing cast iron pipes. Production ceased on May 24th 2007, and subsequently a huge amount of the site was demolished around 2009/2010.
However, not all of it was. There is one large part left which is attached to an even bigger part of one of Saint Gobain's very much in-use manufacturing plants. A little further afield on the outskirts of the plant sits the empty Exhibition Building, Training Centre and Fire Station all built in the mid 1940s in a matching style. The Exhibition Centre would have at one time housed a company cinema as well as, I guess, some kind of social club style thing. The Training Centre was accessible but looking through the windows barely worth it, and the Fire Station is currently located in the middle of an active yard belong to another business.
After getting on site and hoping that our mad dash past one of the cameras mounted in the yard wasn't being monitored we found the way in and began shooting. It's a little nervy in here as the derelict part joins on directly to the active parts of the factory and even on a Sunday there were people inside working, with all that separates you being some opaque white sheeting that has quite a few holes in it. Overall it reminded me very much of how Ford's Iron Ore Foundry in Leamington Spa looked circa 2011 - utterly filthy, dirty and ripped apart, however dig a little deeper and there was some good stuff to see.
A short distance away from the main factory area is another empty part, an extremely long building that I'm unsure of the former use of - there were a load of sound proof booths piled up at one end of it and a really cool caged tool room halfway down.
Just down the road from the site stands the Exhibition Building I mentioned before along with it's sister buildings. These are utterly ruined but I had a look for completion's sake.
Thanks for looking as always!
Some history pieced together from various sources. There is loads of stuff out there, I could be digging for days but this is the briefest of summaries.
It was established in 1855 with an office staff of four, and three small furnaces, a small foundry, iron fields at Stanton and in the neighbourhood parish of Dale Abbey, and the Ironstone Bell pits at Babbington. The partners were Messrs George and John Crompton - brothers and partners in the firm of bankers of Crompton and Evans - Mr Newton and Mr. Barber. At first the pig iron was made entirely from local ore, but in 1865 Northamptonshire ores were introduced into the company's mixtures, and a little later iron mines in Leceistershire and Northamptonshire were acquired and developed. In 1878 the pipe foundry, now probably the largest in Great Britain, if not in the world, was started under the management of Mr James Chambers. Ten years prior to this date the company sunk its first colliery at Teversal, the Pleaseley Colliery followed in 1873, and The Silverhill in 1878. As indicating the progress of the firm it may be mentioned that in the twenty years immediately prior to 1914, the output of coal had increased by 94 per cent, the ironstone output by 38 per cent, the pig iron output by 29 per cent and the cast iron pipe output by 184 per cent.
Circa 1914 the company had 7000 people on its pay roll - 3000 at Stanton, the same number at the collieries and 1000 at the ironstone mines.
In 1951 it was nationalised and became part of the Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain.
In 1960 the company was taken over by Stewarts & Lloyds Ltd. and was merged with Staveley Iron & Chemical Co. to form the Stanton & Staveley company.
In 1967 Stanton & Staveley was incorporated into British Steel.
During the early 1980s Stanton became part of the French Pont-a-Mouson Group and later part of Saint Gobain, manufacturing cast iron pipes. Production ceased on May 24th 2007, and subsequently a huge amount of the site was demolished around 2009/2010.
However, not all of it was. There is one large part left which is attached to an even bigger part of one of Saint Gobain's very much in-use manufacturing plants. A little further afield on the outskirts of the plant sits the empty Exhibition Building, Training Centre and Fire Station all built in the mid 1940s in a matching style. The Exhibition Centre would have at one time housed a company cinema as well as, I guess, some kind of social club style thing. The Training Centre was accessible but looking through the windows barely worth it, and the Fire Station is currently located in the middle of an active yard belong to another business.
After getting on site and hoping that our mad dash past one of the cameras mounted in the yard wasn't being monitored we found the way in and began shooting. It's a little nervy in here as the derelict part joins on directly to the active parts of the factory and even on a Sunday there were people inside working, with all that separates you being some opaque white sheeting that has quite a few holes in it. Overall it reminded me very much of how Ford's Iron Ore Foundry in Leamington Spa looked circa 2011 - utterly filthy, dirty and ripped apart, however dig a little deeper and there was some good stuff to see.
A short distance away from the main factory area is another empty part, an extremely long building that I'm unsure of the former use of - there were a load of sound proof booths piled up at one end of it and a really cool caged tool room halfway down.
Just down the road from the site stands the Exhibition Building I mentioned before along with it's sister buildings. These are utterly ruined but I had a look for completion's sake.
Thanks for looking as always!
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