Shakespeare/Coupe Foundry, Higher Walton Preston - July 2022

History (from what I found off of a 2014 article):
The loss of a contract with a vehicle manufacturer led to a historic castings manufacturer entering administration, it has been revealed. Coupe Foundry, which has operated from its site in Lancashire for more than 100 years, was rescued earlier this year in a deal which saved 80 jobs. But unsecured creditors are owed more than £1m following the collapse and now face a wait to see how much cash they will recover. Coupe Foundry Ltd entered administration on 27 January 2014 with Jason Elliott and Craig Johns of Cowgill Holloway Business Recovery appointed. The business traded while in administration and was purchased on 4 February 2014 by Coupe Casting Ltd, a company 50 per cent owned by Shakespeare Foundry and Eaves Machining. Through two companies, Coupe Casting Ltd and Coupe Equipment Ltd, the purchaser acquired the business and assets for a total of £275,000, a new report from the administrators has revealed. The deal saved all 83 jobs. At the date of administration, Coupe Foundry Ltd owed £1.08m to unsecured creditors. There is expected to be a repayment but, as the administrators are reviewing a potential corporate tax refund for the company, the total payment cannot yet be confirmed. Coupe Foundry Ltd was incorporated in 2004 when it was acquired out of administration but the business itself had been trading for more than 100 years at its site in Higher Walton, near Preston. It was originally known as William Coupe Ltd. The business is thought to be one of the biggest jobbing foundries in the UK and supplies metal castings for car body parts, frames for machines, water pumps and parts for the wind energy sector. It also produces the moulds for the manufacturing process into which molten metal is poured. Historically, the business had not received contract work and instead relied upon its ability to generate new and repeat orders. But one of the few contracts it did have was with a vehicle manufacturer and this was withdrawn in spring 2013 which caused cash flow difficulties as the company was unable to generate enough orders to compensate for the loss, the administrators said.
Orders significantly reduced in 2013 and this led to cash flow issues which led to it falling behind with payments to some suppliers. It began to receive new orders in late 2013 and its order book reached £900,000 but because of the reduction earlier in the year and the time taken to finish projects, the increased orders did not have an immediate positive effect. As a result the company started to seek external investment or a sale and entered administration in early 2014.
I checked public business records from the government and the company apparently entered liquidation in 2018.

The Explore:
I found out about this location from another photographer on Flickr. He visited the place last January and I knew the place was relatively close to me and so I decided to go and check it out to see what it had to offer. I arrive at the location and gaining access was quite easy, once you get past the site fence, access into the complex itself is very easy. This explore was very unique compared to anything I have explored in the 2 years of exploring. It had a very industrial feel about it, the smell was like walking into a mining museum. I walk around the complex with my camera and tripod for an hour or so and take some photos. Most of the complex was empty but the industrial architecture made it well worth it. There was also an office part of the building which was trashed and had broken glass everywhere. There was obviously signs that vandals had gained access to the building in the past given the broken glass, damaged walls and graffiti in some parts. This was one of my favourite explores so far.

The Photos:

These are the stairs that were caked in huge amounts of glass


























I would like to thank you for taking the time to read this.

Hi I am a Loss Adjuster who is dealing with an Insurance claim for that site. Your photographs show the damage and decay on site perfectly could you please tell me on what date they were taken?

How old is the insurance claim? If you don't mind me asking.

Incidents occurred October 2020 thus if anyone has any photos from around that time they would be most helpful

Loss Adjuster said:

Incidents occurred October 2020 thus if anyone has any photos from around that time they would be most helpful

Click to expand...

Sorry they are from just over a week ago. My apologies.

I can see why you really liked this one. It looks a great place for a leisurely mooch around. Cheers.

These photos are absolutely heart-breaking. I used to work for Coupe's Foundry in 1986/87. They were a fantastic firm to work for, great bunch of lads to work with - real men that were proper role models (not the woke, pc wimps of today), the pay was very good, they had a production bonus each week, treated their staff to a slap up meal each Christmas in one of the top hotels in Preston and on a personal level - they were very good to me and treated me brilliantly. Another nail in the coffin in our once proud industrial past, where Britain produced everything.

Salisbury67 said:

These photos are absolutely heart-breaking. I used to work for Coupe's Foundry in 1986/87. They were a fantastic firm to work for, great bunch of lads to work with - real men that were proper role models (not the woke, pc wimps of today), the pay was very good, they had a production bonus each week, treated their staff to a slap up meal each Christmas in one of the top hotels in Preston and on a personal level - they were very good to me and treated me brilliantly. Another nail in the coffin in our once proud industrial past, where Britain produced everything.

Click to expand...

"Another nail in the coffin in our once proud industrial past, where Britain produced everything". As I have said many times before, the nail inserters
have been no one but UK citizens and others living in the UK refusing to pay
the prices needed to buy ANYTHING that was/ is actually "Made in Britain". Together with British manufacturers selling out to investors from abroad - Tata for example in the steel industry, and lazy manufacturers (Land Rover and the whole British motorcyle industry, as examples) being stick-in-the-mud and complacent, along with greedy, disruptive, anti-British union members (red Ted
for example) demanding and getting job demarcation, closed shops, stupid strike after stupid strike. All these factors produced workers who could not give a damn about the quality of the products they were making, especially in the car industry.

Result; the British public buying things made abroad, or foreign brand items assembled in the UK: German ("Forsprung durch technik") and Japanese ("The car in front is a Toyota"). Land Rover lost out worldwide to the Toyota Land Cruiser - more reliable and cheaper - from complacency and not listening to what 4 x 4 users needed for working in dusty and muddy Africa, Asia and Australia.

From post-war Far East manufacturers in the 1960s (think of the worldwide camera industry, mainly Japanese from 1950 onwards) to today, the shift has been towards that way. Now communist China is what Birmingham was in the nineteenth century, and largely right up to the end of World War Two: the factory to the world.

I bet those nails in the coffin of British industry and the hammers have "Made in China" stamped on every one of them.

Hayman said:

"Another nail in the coffin in our once proud industrial past, where Britain produced everything". As I have said many times before, the nail inserters
have been no one but UK citizens and others living in the UK refusing to pay
the prices needed to buy ANYTHING that was/ is actually "Made in Britain". Together with British manufacturers selling out to investors from abroad - Tata for example in the steel industry, and lazy manufacturers (Land Rover and the whole British motorcyle industry, as examples) being stick-in-the-mud and complacent, along with greedy, disruptive, anti-British union members (red Ted
for example) demanding and getting job demarcation, closed shops, stupid strike after stupid strike. All these factors produced workers who could not give a damn about the quality of the products they were making, especially in the car industry.

Result; the British public buying things made abroad, or foreign brand items assembled in the UK: German ("Forsprung durch technik") and Japanese ("The car in front is a Toyota"). Land Rover lost out worldwide to the Toyota Land Cruiser - more reliable and cheaper - from complacency and not listening to what 4 x 4 users needed for working in dusty and muddy Africa, Asia and Australia.

From post-war Far East manufacturers in the 1960s (think of the worldwide camera industry, mainly Japanese from 1950 onwards) to today, the shift has been towards that way. Now communist China is what Birmingham was in the nineteenth century, and largely right up to the end of World War Two: the factory to the world.

I bet those nails in the coffin of British industry and the hammers have "Made in China" stamped on every one of them.

Click to expand...

I agree with you partially, in that UK citizens are to blame for refusing to pay more for goods Made In Britain. As a British patriot, I try to strive and buy British when possible. The rest of the blame has to go with successive British Governments for a) not investing in British manufacturing b) failing to impose high import tariffs on foreign goods, that way there would be no incentive to buy foreign made goods c) a failure to fly the flag and promote Buy British, not only as a patriotic thing to do, but the right thing to do.

The rot started with Margaret Thatcher, who had total disdain for our industrial past and with a middle class arrogance and disdain, wrongly had the opinion that the UK's future lay in investing in finance and banking, not manufacturing. Anywhere north of the Watford Gap in her mind, did not qualify as being part of the UK. She made the mistake of the 1988 British Steel Act, which saw the disastrous privatisation of British Steel, which led to the domino effect of the mess the British Steel Industry is in now - from Corus to Tata and now, we have the prospect of steelworks in Scunthorpe and Port Talbot being closed forever. Think of that, a country of the UK's stature unable to produce it's own steel! One of the main goals of any country is, independence and self sufficiency (and controlling our borders). Getting back to Tata et al, no foreign company should be able to acquire or take over any British company that is essential to manufacturing.

On the anti-British trade union leaders, I totally agree with you. A lot, but not all, have a hidden agenda and do not give a monkey's about Britain or the workers they are supposed to be representing. You mentioned, the notorious loony left, Red Ted, a self proclaimed Marxist and most dangerous individual. Another example of the wrong trade union leader for workers was, Scargill, who led the miners up a cul-de-sac. Had the miners had a different leader at NUM, or told him to go whistle Dixie, when he told them his way of doing it (or hidden agenda), I am convinced what happened would have turned out differently for us still having mines. On a more up to date level, we have agitators such as Lynch, getting involved in far left loony tune causes aka hate marches, instead of representing his workers and again, having a hidden agenda. Although not connected to British Industry and manufacturing, the Civil Service union - PCS, is a most dangerous set-up. I speak with experience, having run-ins with their anti-British, Marxist reps and those further up the greasy pole.

Looking to the future, what the government need to do is, encourage all young male school leavers to take up apprenticeships and not go on to further education, which is no good to neither man nor beast (education, education, education was the screech of a globalist former PM). Running parallel with encouraging apprenticeships, is investing more in British Manufacturing and putting sky high tariffs on anything Made In China. There are some green shoots on the horizon. Over here in Northern Ireland, we have a company called Wrightbus, that has just acquired a number of contracts to build buses worldwide, but we need more companies like Wrightbus, to be backed to the hilt by whatever British Government is in power. I can think of one particular party leader, who would be pulling his hair out at what I have just written. there are far too many Coupe's Foundries with a proud past, now derelict wastelands, we now need to reverse this.