# Clay Cross Foundry, Derbys. - July 08



## ThenewMendoza (Jul 20, 2008)

Visited with Smileysal. Thanks to Thompski for the lead.

Clay Cross foundry (part of the Clay Cross Company, founded in 1837) dates back to the mid-nineteenth century when railway pioneer George Stephenson, following the completion of the Clay Cross tunnel, brought his Derby to Leeds railway through the small village. The construction work on the tunnel uncovered rich seams of coal and iron ore and from that point on the village flourished becoming a small town producing coal, iron ore and iron and limestone, as well as 5million bricks a year.

In 1974 the company was brought by RMC (Ready Mixed Concrete) mainly for its quarries. In 1985 after RMC changed ownership a number of times, the company was brought by the Biwater Group. The death of the company came in 1998 when it was brought by Stanton and was closed within 6 months, leaving Stanton the only producers of spun pipes.

More info can be found here








































TnM


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## smileysal (Jul 20, 2008)

Excellent pics hun. :notworthy:

This was an amazing place, still can't believe how big the place is. I thought Thompski was kidding when he said a large derelict industrial place lol. Spent over 4 hours in here. 

Will put my pics up when I've finally got them onto a disc and uploaded 

Was an excellent day. :wcool:

Cheers,

 Sal


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## wolfism (Jul 20, 2008)

Suitably grimy … looks like an interesting place. Did you spot any of the ductile iron pipes that the history link mentions? I've got a soft spot for lumps of iron.


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## BigLoada (Jul 20, 2008)

I am intrigued by that last picture! Any idea what those things are?


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## smileysal (Jul 20, 2008)

I think they're the filters for masks, similar to asbestos masks (maybe they're the same thing? ), at least thats what i think they are. Hopefully someone in the know will tell us more 

 Sal


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## ThenewMendoza (Jul 20, 2008)

Lithium said:


> I am intrigued by that last picture! Any idea what those things are?



Aah, well, they are 'things', I'm surprised you had to ask!! lol  Wolfism, sadly, there are no big pipes to be found 

Mendo


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## BigLoada (Jul 20, 2008)

ThenewMendoza said:


> Aah, well, they are 'things', I'm surprised you had to ask!! lol  Wolfism, sadly, there are no big pipes to be found
> 
> Mendo



Yeah they do look like filters actually. It was hard to figure out the size from the picture!


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## thompski (Jul 20, 2008)

Great stuff Mendo as always  

My familiarity with the place is largely due to its current use - an airsoft site - and believe me the place is great for shooting a replica AK47 as it is to shoot with a camera!


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## Foxylady (Jul 20, 2008)

Wow, fantastic site. Love the look of the buildings inside and out...absolutely love pic 5 with the skylights. Great photos as always, Mendo...they always seem so colourful for some reason.


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## thompski (Jul 22, 2008)

I decided to pay a visit to the Chesterfield area yesterday and take a look myself, there was some activity around the place with builders (demolishing one of the original office buildings which was made unstable by an arson attack last year) however with a spot of stealth (my tripod beat my durability test) I was in.

Reading into the history, it was known as Biwater from 1989 until 2000, a pipe manufacturer. They had a full order book when it was taken over by Saint Gobain (a large corporation based in Paris) and a day after the take over they announced its closure, with a loss of 700 jobs most from Clay Cross. Quite controversial at the time, and from all accounts the UK government did attempt to prevent the closure though were essentially told to piss off by Saint Gobain's chairman.

The site could be completely redeveloped for a mixed use residential/office/retail scheme, a sad shame considering the heritage of this place and the part it played in the Industrial Revolution. 

















The shower block, or what's left of it















As said before, CCW is used as an airsoft site, and evidence of this lies around....





Pipe 'moulds'?





And perhaps the oddest thing lying around is four old jags - heres two of them


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## smileysal (Jul 22, 2008)

Excellent pics mate, glad you got to see it. It's huge isn't it? still can't believe how big it is. Even my 4 year old loved looking around here, she kept saying "it's ace, it's ace" lol.

I've just got to get my films put onto disc and get my pics up (hopefully sometime today - fingers crossed lol).

Cheers,

 Sal


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## Fish '78 (Jul 22, 2008)

Ha Ha.........You beat me to it!

If anyone saw my "Im new" thingy I said how a group of us still rent a unit out on the site. Last week we where gven notice to be out for the 15th August. Very very sad. I have spent hours and hours up there.



Wish I'd have known you lot planned a trip up i went up on Saturday afternoon. I could have come with you! and I have keys to the front gate............. 
Never Mind. Always next time.

I lived in Clay Cross until a few years ago and the plan is for a new massive Tesco, some small retail outlets and new homes linked in to the regeneration of the area. The site itself is huge but next to it is a quarry, scrapard and a playing field all of this is going to be devloped. We where told when we started renting the building that the land had to stand because of all the contamination and when they do build a six foot layer has to be taken off the whole site!
Excellent pictures by the way.

Regards
Fish


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## orangeacid (Jul 22, 2008)

Wow and this is just down the road? Such a massive shame if it's going :-( I'm not sure if this would be cooler to go take pictures in or shoot people in 

Airsoft is something else I'd like to try out before too long, along with cranes, drains, asylums and hospitals


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## thompski (Jul 22, 2008)

orangeacid said:


> Wow and this is just down the road? Such a massive shame if it's going :-( I'm not sure if this would be cooler to go take pictures in or shoot people in
> 
> Airsoft is something else I'd like to try out before too long, along with cranes, drains, asylums and hospitals



Airsoft - ask me anything, can even borrow a gun if you want 

As for the latter four I think we cover them nicely in Derby  well except asylums anyway....


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## NobodyGirl (Jul 22, 2008)

Gosh they are some sexy pics! Awesome explore!!!


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## Kaputnik (Jul 23, 2008)

Great pics, TNM, and love that one with the criss crossing contrails in the blue sky, Thompski.


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## turkey (Jul 30, 2008)

Myself and Dweeb went here this evening...

I wasnt dissapointed, cheers for the info you gave to dweeb


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## The Pirate (Jul 30, 2008)

Nice one all it looks amazing !!

Great pics


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## Mr Sam (Aug 2, 2008)

XJS whuuuuuuuuuut they could at least stick them in a shed FFS


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## zero seven four (Aug 3, 2008)

>



any chance of getting this out i need parts for a mates, there a nice car and on lpg they just rock.. plus a good pose..


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## thompski (Aug 3, 2008)

I spoke to the guy whom runs the Airsoft site yesterday and he told me he hasn't been told to move out anytime soon, and reckons the redevelopment won't happen for some time.

Quite happy to revisit if anyone fancies a mosey...


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## Mr Sam (Aug 3, 2008)

PM on the way


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## Fish '78 (Aug 4, 2008)

The jags are parked round the back of a garage. They belong to them and the old boy I spoke to the other day said he was going to move them as they are a friends cars who is going to "do them up"!!! Good luck to him they are a right state.


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