# Fullers Earth Works, Redhill, Nov 2010



## LiamWg (Nov 1, 2010)

After hearing quite a lot about this site me and Zotez thought we would finally go and check it out. It was very much worth the £15 train ticket up there. Many things happened on this explore which made it just a great day out and a very enjoyable explore 

After getting an early train into Reading and getting lucky on finding the right platform we sat down to see an old "shouty" couple. All the way uptowards Redhill trainstation these old people were shouting at each other and arguing over randomly stupid things. For example after finding out that the train did infact go to heathrow airport the man decided to find a buffet on the train, after realising there was no buffet on the train they decided to ask the ticket man whether he had any apples to give them :L:L With that the ticket man walks off and returns with 4 Granny Smiths apples and gives them to the old shouty couple. These people gave me and Zotez much entertainment throughout the train journey and made the long 1 hour 30 min train journey just about bearable.

The seconds thing that made the day enjoyable was after spending atleast 20 mins writing our names on the walls with stickers we found on the floor we turned round to see some other explorers. I have never met any other explorers on a site before so i was rather excited and walked over to say hello. The first thing they said to us was "you taking pictures?" (anyone else noticed that this is kind of a codeword for, "your not gunna stab me are you?") we only had a brief chat with them as they wanted to get round and see the rest of the site. That was a bit of a fun experience. 

Me and Zotez were in the halloween spirit so after we finally got to Redhill we thought we would buy a haloween mask. After spending 98p on the worlds shittest mask we started to make our way to Fullers.. but Zotez thought it would be a good idea to wear the mask through the town centre and for most of the journey :L he got some strange looks and one person shouted "halloween was yesterday mateee" lol. we also wore it on the train back when about 50 school kids got on the train to go home :L

some history...

A greyish, mineral-rich clay, fuller's earth is well-known for its absorbent qualities and has many uses. Its best known use however is as cat litter, of which millions of bags are sold every year. Most of this is now imported from the Americas but until recently, fuller's earth was quarried from the Lower Greensand strata at Woburn (Beds.), at Baulking (Oxon.) and at Redhill (Surrey).
On the Redhill deposit, the most successful quarry operating at the turn of the century was the Copyhold Works of the Fuller's Earth Union Ltd, established c.1860-70. Initially supplying the woolen trade, demand later shifted to the growing chemical and comodity sector with customers in the 1920s-40s including the Southern Oil Company Ltd, British Glues and Chemicals Ltd and Price's Patent Candle Co.

In 1954 the works, by now employing 780 men, were bought by chemical company Laporte Industries. Production was stepped up to meet increasing demand and a large factory consisting of kilns, granulators, blungers, silos and transit systems on several floors was built. A large quarry existed to the east and in the 1970s this strange landscape stood in for various alien worlds in the BBC's Doctor Who series. In the 1980s, the Copyhold site was sending loose earths and packaged cat litter around the world.
By 1995, however, due to falling profits it was announced that the company would close 10% of its 100 plants. Copyhold fell victim the following year and the Laporte Group ceased fuller's earth production altogether in 1997. After the production lines were switched off, the 119 acre pit was purchased for use as a landfill site by Biffa Waste Services and continues to take waste from across Surrey. The factory was for a while used as a waste transfer station but this was abandoned at some time in the last four years and the site is now derelict.

Now onto the bit you have all been wanting to see the pictures... 































The cat litter...





























Some Epic graffiti around the site..





Hope you enjoyed.... I know my pictures are not that great but as soon as i get my tripod they will be better ...


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## Zotez (Nov 1, 2010)

Sorry for the delay, the uploader was not working.

Had a great day at La Porte Fullers Earthworks today, as Liam said it was brilliant.

Sorry but there are a fair few graffiti pictures because I love graffiti, and yes the names were written on the wall in the space of around 40 minutes using little square stickers we found on the floor!































































































































































































Sorry for the mass of pics! I have two more that I must post!

First, our attempt at light painting:






And finally, me!


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## LiamWg (Nov 1, 2010)

Go for it mate  make sure to include the mask and all the other epic graffiti shots  here is the pic of our names 






And don't worry guys they are only stickers!


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## Jimmy100100 (Nov 1, 2010)

Nice pics buddy, looking forward to a new explore soon!


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## LiamWg (Nov 1, 2010)

Haha love the mask shot and the epicness of the graffiti! bit of a fail at light painting but were definattely improving :L that compared to our dirst attempt is epic! lol and yeah Jimmy definatley mate will have to do one soon!


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## KooK. (Nov 2, 2010)

heh, nice little explore guys, it took me a while to realise the light painting was DP and not a smiley face! good effort though!


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## LiamWg (Nov 2, 2010)

Thanks Kook. There were many other worse attempts  we gave up in the end and said that one would do :L Probably would be a bit easier with an actual torch rather than the light on Zotez's phone though


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## TranKmasT (Nov 7, 2010)

Looks like a good place. Me likes rusty'n'crusty. You were right about that mask. What a pile of crap. I would of spent at least £1.50 on a better one you tight arse. 

Well done guys!


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## LiamWg (Nov 7, 2010)

TranKmasT;171917. said:


> You were right about that mask. What a pile of crap. I would of spent at least £1.50 on a better one you tight arse. !



Haha Cheers mate  we were on a budget after the £15 train journey  :L Was a good day out though


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