# Visteon Plant, Swansea - August 2015



## baal (Sep 1, 2015)

Found this one while looking for another place I had spotted. Swansea Visteon plant was originally built in 1959 for the Prestcold fridge company and was bought by Ford who manufactured car axle and transmission components there. They used to make gearboxes for Jaguar amongst others. It went into recievership in 2009 after ford sold it to Visteon, with the loss of thousands of jobs. Quite a lot of history in this place.







This place is enormous, it stands in a 120,000m2 site and we went there planning to spend an hour looking around. It took about 2 hours in the end. The main factory goes on for ever and looking from one end to the other made Welsh_noir look like a dot in the distance. Its the emptiest factory I've ever been in, its been completely stripped of everything, apart from a few chairs and tables there is not much there. I noticed a board that said Lassco had been there, they are are an architectural salvage company. Quite a lot of light fittings and bulbs laying around though.


























Looks like nobody has been here for a while, not even the local gypsies who get in everywhere around here. Nothing broken or smashed, not bad as its been shut for 6 years. Makes a change to the smashed up warzones I'm used to. Canteen still has tables and chairs in place but nearly all the rooms are empty shells. The whole factory floor is covered with bird feathers and droppings and there is a board listing hazards warning you about it.































The only room with fittings in is the clean room for the computers, which has big handles and sealing doors like a fridge.


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## mookster (Sep 1, 2015)

That's huge!


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## krela (Sep 1, 2015)

From what I remember you really have taken photos of the only things in the entire place. Everything was auctioned off by the recievers and they did an unusually good job. I suspect a lot of it went to China and India. Thanks for posting.


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## flyboys90 (Sep 1, 2015)

As you say not much left! still a great set of pics.


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## smiler (Sep 1, 2015)

That is a humongous place, it has to be useful for something, Nicely Done Baal, Thanks


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## thorfrun (Sep 1, 2015)

nice report, i drove past this last week but was too busy for a mooch.


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## baal (Sep 1, 2015)

Thank you for all your comments.
Yes the place is huge but empty, you really have to go in there to appreciate how massive it is. Not much to see but still a cool place.


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## welsh_noir (Sep 1, 2015)

yeah it was massive, i even lost you for ten minuets at one point. it was nice to go smewhere where vandels havent been yet for a change. i missed that wine bottle though baal.


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## Duo42115 (Sep 2, 2015)

Love huge open places like this, the sense of space compared to it's heyday rammed with machinery and workers is stark and a little foreboding. Great set of pics there


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## Malcog (Sep 2, 2015)

I worked at a Visteon factory, in Hungary in 2008 and they were planning how to move all the plant from the Swansea factory. This was before ford sold the factory to Visteon.


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## UrbanX (Sep 3, 2015)

Blimey that does look a big place. Lots of nice natural decay too, thank you for sharing


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## chloemarieknott (Sep 5, 2015)

Is this still there?


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## baal (Sep 5, 2015)

chloemarieknott said:


> Is this still there?



yes its still there


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## krela (Sep 6, 2015)

Hi Chloe, please read the forum rules, asking questions like this isn't allowed. The idea is you either enjoy other people's photos or you go look for yourself.


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## chloemarieknott (Sep 6, 2015)

Sorry I was just wondering if it's in use today as I've googled it and it's coming up as somewhere that is in use


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## baal (Sep 6, 2015)

chloemarieknott said:


> Sorry I was just wondering if it's in use today as I've googled it and it's coming up as somewhere that is in use



Visteon has been shut for about 6 years


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## chloemarieknott (Sep 6, 2015)

baal said:


> Visteon has been shut for about 6 years


Thank you Baal!


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## DKHunter (Sep 7, 2015)

Nice post Baal. I fancy something similar, but with much more content! How do you fancy coming?


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## borntobemild (Sep 11, 2015)

I used to visit the place in the 90s when I worked for Jaguar. It was one of the grimmer outposts of Ford's empire. I remember it in black and white! The views over Jersey Marine and Port Talbot weren't great either. I thought Ford sold it off to Visteon in about 2000. The guys there were worried about their pensions!


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## baal (Sep 11, 2015)

borntobemild said:


> I used to visit the place in the 90s when I worked for Jaguar. It was one of the grimmer outposts of Ford's empire. I remember it in black and white! The views over Jersey Marine and Port Talbot weren't great either. I thought Ford sold it off to Visteon in about 2000. The guys there were worried about their pensions!



Yes ford sold it to visteon but it didn't last long before it went under.
I remember going past there when I was a kid and at the front of the building there is a circular room and they used to put old cars in there. They used to change all the time but they had ford GTs, model Ts and other cool fords in there.


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## Arty1955 (Oct 25, 2015)

Hi all,

I worked there from 1999 to 2007,it was a great plant to work in all went down hill once it was spun off to visteon.

It looks like the pictures are from the old Elba building where jaguar and Mazda power takeoff units were produced,the main plant was huge,disc,drum and hubs were produced there.The third part of the building was the zeta building which produced camshafts,conrods and crankshafts for the ford products.

There was also the Kings dock building which was a huge building as well where components for the lorries were built that has since been knocked down a rebuilt.

In 2007 visteon was looking to offload the plant which in turn a company called gkn was to take over but it never materialized,linmar then purchased the plant but only in the Elba building in which they then closed in a few years later.

The uk visteon group went bankrupt not long ago,the uk ford plants as in Enfield,Basildon,Belfast and swansea were all closed many employees transferred to bridgend engine plant like myself.One things for sure I never have or will work in a plant as great as the ford/visteon plant its sadly missed by all its former employees


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## J_a_t_33 (Oct 28, 2015)

Amazing report. Inspiring me to go B&W more


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## Rhetora (Jan 23, 2016)

Was this place taken over by bay studios or is it still derelict?


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