# Lost in time - Builders Yard, Brading Isle of Wight - Mar 08



## Urban Mole (Mar 12, 2009)

Ok, from the title, it doesnt sound that interesting, but, after visiting this place, I ahve to say, it had me wandering about for ages.
This is the old W. J. Simmonds & Sons Ltd builders, that Im sure is not in existance anymore.
This ite is massive, but access is made very awkward by hundreds of trees and bushes, nature has truly taken over this place.
I would hazard a guess that there are about 15-20 buildings, and about 5 have collapsed, due to rot and trees pushing their way through etc.
The site is still covered in lots of building materials, stacks of bricks, roof tiles, bathroom bits and bobs, you name it, its here, somewhere.
There is one building that is absolutly full of paper work, the earliest I could find was around 1890 odd, right upto 1975.

Ok enough jibber jabber, on with the pics;






Ok, they had their own garage, with a pit, presumably to maintain their own trucks etc, and inside was this, engine powered wheel barrow type thing.











Note the company name on the side, along with a numberplate, road legal?? maybe if you had a helmet on?





Goodyear, something....





This was an odd contraption, but upon closer inspection, came to the conclusion, it was an old battery charger.





Zooming in a bit.





Close up of the dial.





View inside the garage.





Lots of cubby holes for storage of various items.





A parifin burner possibly?





An old diesel powered cement mixer, one of 4 in this partially collapsed building.





Dan admiring some of the stuff within this building.





Very old graffitti





A former employee maybe?





Those are Pew backs stored way up in the rafters.





This was by far the biggest building of the lot, it was the main wood shop.





Manual for the company van, nice.





Blueprints of houses.





Blueprints.





This must have been a great piece ofkit in its day, its a saw and a planer, both work on the same spindle.





And again.





Sinage.





Sinage.





Sinage.





A morticer .





And some dodgey windows.

I do have lots more pics, but all very similar to whats already up.
Oh I forgot to mention, we found an very small ari raid shelter in the grounds too.

Hope you enjoyed viewing as much as we enjoyed exploring lol...


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## crickleymal (Mar 12, 2009)

That's a cracking find there. I love those old machines and that van manual is great.


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## mcl (Mar 12, 2009)

What can I say Steve , brilliant find


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## night crawler (Mar 12, 2009)

What a great explore, that could have been a parifin heater I remeber them from when I was a kid.


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## nutnut (Mar 12, 2009)

night crawler said:


> What a great explore, that could have been a parifin heater I remeber them from when I was a kid.



Ha! Ha! My folks have still got one of those in pristine condition, that i remember from donkeys years ago 

Fantastic find, bet you enjoyed yourself in there having a good old snoot about.


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## Sabtr (Mar 12, 2009)

Crikey!! 

That's a heck of a find. I bet you wouldn't find that place once the vegetation grows back.

How can a place like this ever get left behind? Surely someone somewhere knows or knew about it?

Those machines are class - the barrow is something I've never seen before. I reckon that if you get it MOT'd etc the number still exists. That would make it quite valuble (but if anyone does do that can I have the machine please  ).

Excellent work in finding this.


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## ricasso (Mar 12, 2009)

Nice one UM,there's some great kit there! looks like an early power barrow and I think the engine on the mixer is a Lister D type,petrol,1 1/2 horsepower, the press looks like an old mortiser, well done UM,


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## cardiffrail (Mar 12, 2009)

What an interesting site. Good find and pics.


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## T-bar (Mar 12, 2009)

Nice piccy of me. I'll ask around I am sure the guys I worked for mentioned some other places they played in when they were kids if they are still there we might have to check them too be good to see more of this kind of thing. should type the machines reg in on DVLA website and get a description lol


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## T-bar (Mar 12, 2009)

cant do it without the make of the machine lol


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## traineefarmer (Mar 12, 2009)

ricasso said:


> Nice one UM,there's some great kit there! looks like an early power barrow and I think the engine on the mixer is a Lister D type,petrol,1 1/2 horsepower, the press looks like an old mortiser, well done UM,



Yeah i definately agree with you on the engine and the mortiser. Would love to know more about the powered barrow though. You can get a similar thing today with caterpillar tracks. I collect old garden machinery and would love to know more info if anyone has it.


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## Foxylady (Mar 12, 2009)

Wow, such fabulous things! 
Love the various bits of machinery but the blueprints are my especial favourite.
Very nice find, UrbM and T.


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## herts digger (Mar 12, 2009)

What an amazing place,I thought for a minute that I had gone back in time to the early sixties when I started my apprenticeship as a chippy,I actually used a morticer like that one,no motor,you had to bump the chisel through the timber,bloody hard work,especially in hardwood,I dont think health and safety would approve of it and the saw bench.I agree with Ricasso about the mixer engine,I can add that it is an early one,with the direct drive to the magneto,sorry to sound like an anorack,but it was a hobby of mine,and I actually had one from a mixer,we used to restore these and show them at steam fairs,nice find U M,I wonder how long it will stay like this.
Its all out there to be found,so keep looking.


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## Urban Mole (Mar 13, 2009)

Thanks for the comments guys, it really was an interesting place to look around.
But T-bar (Dan) has to take credit for finding this place, Ill just settle for the pics 

Like I said, Im guessing its been derelict since the 70s, judging by the size of some of the trees and the rotten frames and buildings.

And Digger, your right, it is a morticer, my inital thought was a press as the block of wood is stuck on the end of it, making me think it was a press.


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## freebird (Mar 13, 2009)

Wow excellent find! All the old stuff in there sounds interesting to see. Amazed the paperwork goes back that far! Nice one!


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## T-bar (Mar 13, 2009)

I dont like to take credit for things Steve we do things as a team  god that sounds sooooo ghey lol 

Its been like it for donkeys years I found some monkey puzle trees growing about 4/5ft tall and they are extremely slow growing heres a caption I stole from a site about them 
"The monkey puzzle is a very slow growing tree that can take 5 - 10 years before it even gets above grass height and then grows around 35cm a year. New growth takes place from late June to Septembe"


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## smileysal (Mar 14, 2009)

Ooooooooh what an excellent find. Love all the stuff still in there, and love the blueprints, and the pews up on the rafters. Excellent work guys, love all the pics. I could happily spend all day in there looking through everything. 

Cheers,

 Sal


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## scammell23 (Mar 14, 2009)

Wow wow wow, what a great find. The registration number on the little dump truck is pre 1963, so it is 46 years old minimum. 
I agree on the battery charger, the two variable resistors aviously increace or decreace the charge current depending on what type of battery is required to be charged. The face of ammeter on the battery charger has the old War Department (WD) arrow and it and has the letter "W", so it is an ex military piece of equipment older than 1964 as the War Department changed its name to the MOD then. 
The "diesel" cement mixer's engine is actually a Lister D type petrol engine. If you look closely you can see the "amal" float chamber, the carbourettor and the back of the Lucas magneto. I did once own a Lister D type engine and it was identical. Lister D type engines were made between 1926 and 1964 at Dursley. You can still see these little engines chugging away at stationary engine events in the summer months. 

Click the following link to see an identical cement mixer, same as the one you found......

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IJ-47n8mjk"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IJ-47n8mjk[/ame]

I really enjoyed looking at your pictures, keep up the good work!


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## Urban Mole (Mar 14, 2009)

Thanks again for the great comments guys, I really didnt think it would get this much attention.

And cheers Scammell for those details, its good to see people still have a great interest in old stuff.
Im guessing alot of stuff was aquired by this company throughout the wars, as it says on their paperwork that they are contractors for the Admiralty, War Dept & M.O.W.

I wasnt sure if it was diesel or petrol to be honest, but the building wasnt that safe so didnt get too close to poke about with the mixer, but there were a few others in there too.

Its a pity that all this great stuff is going to waste, Im sure there are collectors out there that would like alot of this stuff, but youd need either a big bulldozer or a chinook to get anything large out...


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## The Pirate (Mar 15, 2009)

That`s a great post...I love old machinery and stuf...Nice one


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## Urban Mole (May 30, 2009)

Gonna revisit this place again soon, see if we find anything new, and try and get some more info from the paperwork thats still up there.


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