# Brantham Industrial Estate/Wardle Storey, Cattawade, Suffolk April 2012 (Pt 1)



## prettyvacant71 (May 8, 2012)

Hiya folks! Can i just use this space now that i may have your attenion, to just quickly say wot happened to me on photobucket the other day, it maybe be just me (i bet it is!) but this may save you the agro ive had. Don't be a plum like me and click on the "zoom downloader" pop up thingy cause my laptop froze (which aint unusual) then norton said i had troganGen2 virus blocked several times it tried to get in, then i got stuck with a ALOT tool bar (theres rumours sum are spyware..it may sound like i know wot im talkin about but i had to do abit of hunting for info, im no good wiv computers) and me google went mental...i had to go down to currys and ask them to remove it cause it weren't in the usual programmes place, they musta felt abit sorry for me cause they were really helpful and didn't charge me wen they took about half hr to scan stuff etc. All i did was click on the zoom loader to try to upload these pics...learn from my mistakes! 

_*A little history...*_

The former Wardle Storey’s site has a rather complicated history regarding its many various different uses and owners. It was a bit like trying to trace a very hectic family tree, with different name changes, mergers and separations leading down different routes, and without any written documentations easily available I have tried to put this together with some element of accuracy! I was very lucky to bump into a couple of guys out walking their dogs who lived locally and knew a great deal about the site, one of them had worked on the southern site as an electrician for 44 years. So I must thank them both for their time, as I did grill them for a while as they were full of facts, I mentioned that I would put some pic’s on this site so they said they would check them out...so cheers again guys!

The 130 acre site is situated on a peninsula of land with its southern edge on the estuary of the River Stour, and is divided into two sites separated by the main East to London train lines. It was Brooklands Farm prior to BX Plastics purchasing it in 1887 in order to relocate their plastics production London factory, as nitro cellulose explosives was used during the processing practices and London wasn’t considered a safe place to use such dangerous compounds. The company built an extensive array of factories, workshops and warehouses, which during their heyday were busy full off machinery, various materials and chemicals, with over five thousand employees, which seems an impossible scale to imagine compared today’s factories. Down the road Brantham village was purposely built to house the massive workforce. 
During the sixties the company held patent on several plastic products and manufacturing processes, Margaret Thatcher worked there for a short time as a research chemist during the 50’s (I could think of a better use for some of them explosives...). The company was acquired by the British Xylonite Co.Ltd during the 1980’s. Xylonite, the USA version of Celluloid, had many purposes including tubes for insulating electrical cables, jewellery and various household items. 

During the 60’s and 70’s many sales and mergers took place including Union Carbide in the petrol chemical industry, the Bakelite Corporation the pioneer of the plastics industry, The Distillers Company and the most significant in 1977 was the Storey brothers of Lancaster, with Brian Taylor paying only a penny for the whole site! (This was a legal technicality as you cannot “give away” anything legally, to make a binding contract requires consideration, or a payment...so one penny legally binds a contract). Later, in 1997 Alchemy a milling and turning plastics and metal company bought out Wardle Storey’s.
Sadly the site closed down in 2007. The following year the first phase of demolition had begun and most of the northern part of the site, with the exemption of a few buildings including the transport block, has now been demolished. The bricks and rubble are still heaped neatly following the outlines of where the buildings once stood, shame I was a few years too late as I’d have really liked a look around such an interesting place. But what is remaining, under the railway arch on the southern peninsula is still very interesting so worth a visit. 













These 2 little sheds use to house the pumps for the nearby reservoir on Factory Lane 













Chalk House was one of the management offices 







The northern site...as you can see this has mostly gone, knocked down about 4 yrs ago!!!

The concrete pillar in the distance is a war memorial...thankfully the plaque has been removed and stored and not sold for scrap

























more pipage....a tiny mini pyestock in the making, ahh































I described these green curtains to the electrician i bumped into who had worked here for 44yrs, and he said its where they did the welding...hmm... i could do wiv sum new curtains, well me carpet looks as shit as them so they'll sure to match












theres still sum interesting paperwork and tools lying about







Hang em all!!! im being pc, i won't discrimate...they're all as bludy bad as each other...maybe i shud move to sumwhere in europe cause i here thats empty now





























































Thanks for looking folks!...ive done a "part 2 report" as theres lots of interesting bits to see...so another little trip out has to be done before the rest gets demolished as theres still lots i haven't seen yet


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