As I have eluded to before I love exploring examples of smaller scale British industry and this is probably one of the best I have seen.

It was opened in the 1940s and produced cast iron pipes for the water industry. It went through a couple of different owners before closing for the first time in 2002 with it then being acquired by a new owner, renamed and reopened. It remained in operation for another 13 years before going bust and closing in 2015.

Parts of the buildings look like they've been empty a lot longer than three and a bit years, I reckon some parts weren't reopened post-2002. The site is split in two by a beautiful iron railway bridge with the cast storage sheds on one side and the main foundry on the other. The sheds are filled with thousands of the old wooden casting blocks used in the production process, and although the main foundry has had it's heavy industrial equipment removed there is still plenty left to see.

A couple of things I didn't expect to see in here were the Second World War-era stretchers being reused as shelving units and the railway sleepers being used as flooring in the upstairs store room of the main foundry building. It's little things like that which I love about smaller scale British industry.

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Thanks for looking

Those pictures are awesome! I really like those stretcher shelves.

This is a freaking goldmine! Amazing find!

I see Bob left his box behind.