# Stanton Ironworks, Ilkeston December 2018



## mookster (Dec 11, 2018)

This is somewhere I'm surprised hasn't been done more if I'm honest as it's located in what I'd call the heart of one of the UK's 'rust belts'. At it's peak Stanton Ironworks near Ilkeston used to be one of the countries largest iron foundries occupying a huge swathe of land in the north Midlands. Visited on a day of industrial dirtiness with @Landie_Man

Some history pieced together from various sources. There is loads of stuff out there, I could be digging for days but this is the briefest of summaries.

It was established in 1855 with an office staff of four, and three small furnaces, a small foundry, iron fields at Stanton and in the neighbourhood parish of Dale Abbey, and the Ironstone Bell pits at Babbington. The partners were Messrs George and John Crompton - brothers and partners in the firm of bankers of Crompton and Evans - Mr Newton and Mr. Barber. At first the pig iron was made entirely from local ore, but in 1865 Northamptonshire ores were introduced into the company's mixtures, and a little later iron mines in Leceistershire and Northamptonshire were acquired and developed. In 1878 the pipe foundry, now probably the largest in Great Britain, if not in the world, was started under the management of Mr James Chambers. Ten years prior to this date the company sunk its first colliery at Teversal, the Pleaseley Colliery followed in 1873, and The Silverhill in 1878. As indicating the progress of the firm it may be mentioned that in the twenty years immediately prior to 1914, the output of coal had increased by 94 per cent, the ironstone output by 38 per cent, the pig iron output by 29 per cent and the cast iron pipe output by 184 per cent. 

Circa 1914 the company had 7000 people on its pay roll - 3000 at Stanton, the same number at the collieries and 1000 at the ironstone mines.

In 1951 it was nationalised and became part of the Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain.

In 1960 the company was taken over by Stewarts & Lloyds Ltd. and was merged with Staveley Iron & Chemical Co. to form the Stanton & Staveley company.

In 1967 Stanton & Staveley was incorporated into British Steel.

During the early 1980s Stanton became part of the French Pont-a-Mouson Group and later part of Saint Gobain, manufacturing cast iron pipes. Production ceased on May 24th 2007, and subsequently a huge amount of the site was demolished around 2009/2010.

However, not all of it was. There is one large part left which is attached to an even bigger part of one of Saint Gobain's very much in-use manufacturing plants. A little further afield on the outskirts of the plant sits the empty Exhibition Building, Training Centre and Fire Station all built in the mid 1940s in a matching style. The Exhibition Centre would have at one time housed a company cinema as well as, I guess, some kind of social club style thing. The Training Centre was accessible but looking through the windows barely worth it, and the Fire Station is currently located in the middle of an active yard belong to another business.

After getting on site and hoping that our mad dash past one of the cameras mounted in the yard wasn't being monitored we found the way in and began shooting. It's a little nervy in here as the derelict part joins on directly to the active parts of the factory and even on a Sunday there were people inside working, with all that separates you being some opaque white sheeting that has quite a few holes in it. Overall it reminded me very much of how Ford's Iron Ore Foundry in Leamington Spa looked circa 2011 - utterly filthy, dirty and ripped apart, however dig a little deeper and there was some good stuff to see.




























































































A short distance away from the main factory area is another empty part, an extremely long building that I'm unsure of the former use of - there were a load of sound proof booths piled up at one end of it and a really cool caged tool room halfway down. 









































Just down the road from the site stands the Exhibition Building I mentioned before along with it's sister buildings. These are utterly ruined but I had a look for completion's sake.
















Thanks for looking as always!​


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## Sam Haltin (Dec 11, 2018)

A nice collection of industrial photography. I noticed a very large and old-fashioned lathe and a pillar drill. The exhibition building looks a nice building on the outside, with art deco features but inside - that's something else.


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## smiler (Dec 11, 2018)

Excellent report and the usual high quality pics, Loved It, Thanks


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## 5t3tcv743 (Dec 11, 2018)

Cool location. Had no clue it existed. Thanks for posting.


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## Sabtr (Dec 11, 2018)

Surprised to see this one still standing. Even more surprised to see some equipment inside too.
Kinda annoys me to see our industries gone now but glad you've managed to grab some pics.
Yes that's a massive heavy lathe - I wonder what they were repairing with something so big? Only other large lathes I've seen were train wheel ones.
The pillar drill is actually a mill - a milling machine. The style smacks of 1970s though I can't be exact. It appears freshly used but in filthy condition!
Other pieces of gear are some hydraulic pumps/power units. They'd have powered other large heavy machinery which has now been taken. I can't figure out the big 'clamp' thing but do know that molten sparkling metal was often near it - you can see grey coloured metallic residues on nearby girders. It was hot next to that thing!
The long building a warehouse perhaps? Could also have been iron pipe production too??
Loved the outside of the exhibition building but was massively disappointed at the internals.

Fascinating report with some great industrial images. Just the type of thing that gets me going!
Thanks for sharing.


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## odeon master (Dec 12, 2018)

i know someonw who worked here in the 1970's, he said the exhibition building was indeed a cinema, it did show the companies own films for marketing to clients, and also it was used for entertainment for workers and families. Was told it was still used in the very early 80's. Ive driven past it counless times, the building to the right of it was in use till about 5 years back, thats now vandalised too. Shame the inside of the cinemas so bad, take it no projectors were in there?


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## BikinGlynn (Dec 13, 2018)

Yeah look excellent Mookster, wouldnt mind a gander around here as old industrial is right up my street too ;-)


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