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In 1954 La Porte Industries built a large processing facility at a quarry site just outside the town of Redhill in the UK to vastly increase production at a quarry that had been operational since the 1860s digging out Fullers Earth. Fullers Earth is a type of greyish clay with extremely absorbent qualities with wide ranging uses from cosmetic manufacturing to the 'mud' used to assist in drilling oil wells. However it's most well known widest use is in the manufacturing of cat litter and it was for that purpose the La Porte facility was constructed. As well as the massive factory, on site there was a large laboratory/admin building, maintenance/stores buildings, weighbridge and a smaller laboratory that dated much earlier than the 1954 development. In 1995 the plant was closed due to falling worldwide profits, and the quarry site was sold to a waste company for use as a landfill site still in use to this day. The works however have been allowed to decay ever since, with the waste company in a constant battle with the council and local residents over plans to expand the landfill site onto the land occupied by the factory buildings.

Fullers Earth was the third location I ever explored on my first ever weekend of exploring nearly a decade ago. I visited it a handful of times between 2009 and 2011, the memory that will forever stick with me is visiting it in the pouring rain in the summer of 2010 and walking into the Redhill McDonald's afterwards with three inches of crap caked on the soles of my boots and mud all the way up my legs. During the latter half of 2010 the site began to be heavily targeted by graffiti artists (as it still is to this day) and it was then that the downward slide really began. Over the years since my last visit the weighbridge building, older laboratory and stores/maintenance buildings have all been demolished, the larger admin/modern laboratory building was gutted in a huge fire, the giant dryers have had their metal casings almost totally removed, the warehouse half of the main factory had almost all of the roofing removed, nearly every way to the upper levels was cut off and a hoarding fence has sprung up around most of it.

So you could say it's changed rather a lot since my first visits. However I have always found it a rather photogenic rusting hulk and so as I was in the area at the weekend I thought what the hell, one last visit for old times sake. It was nice to say a proper goodbye to it, and I must say I don't think I've ever seen it so dry in there as even in the height of summer it used to still be a bit sticky and squelchy in places, dry as a bone at the moment and I came out without a speck of dust on me.

There is some fantastic graffiti in there now including a good number of pieces by Sterling and Gary Stranger which I was pleased to shoot.

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Thanks for looking