British United Shoe Machinery Ltd (BUSM) Ltd - Leicester may 2008

[MD]

visited today with goldie87 its a massive site only wish we got there sooner.
you dont know how bad i wanted to climb this but the ladder is cut!!

the boilers

control panel with the missing gent clock!!!


blueprint from 1925

 

[KingElvis]

Nice control panel...I want that in my living room LOL

Who stole the clock?

 

[reddwarf9]

Thats awesome, and I still wanna visit sometime

 

[Goldie87]

After not going here for so long it was good to see some more, shame we were a bit late though

 

[King Al]

Great pics Goldie + Matt, Like the old blue prints and that tower Ladder smadder

 

[Goldie87]

Thats awesome, and I still wanna visit sometime

Keep an eye on the leicester meets thread, should be something coming up soon!

 

[nursepayne]

great find!I bet this would have bee amazing if work hadn't began, do you know how far into the site they are?

 

[MD]

they havnt done that much really there are still a few people working in some of the units around the site. they all seemed ok the ones we saw just left us to get on with it
apart from one who found goldie and followed him around chatting
i didnt wait around i climbed in a hole to look at the boilers and left him with his new mate!!!!
sorry mate but he was boring me

 

[Goldie87]

lol as matt says, theres still quite a bit left as it's a big site. For how much longer though I don't know, there is going to be a residential development on the site.

 

[**Mudlark**]

looks like a fab explore, wonder whats going to happen to all that stuff once the demo people move on in...... seems like some ginormous bits of metal to scrap!
Some nice pics too, it kinda brings a place alive a bit when you get a writeup like that to go with them

 

[reddwarf9]

This was an amazing place in its day, around 30 acres if I remember correctly. When the UK still had a massive boot and shoe industry 90% of all manufactured footwear was made on machines built here.

They had service offices based in all the main boot and shoe making areas.

They had a huge international presence too.

Unfortunately the employees became vicim of one of the worst pension scams of all time just before the company went bust as their pension funds were raided after a takeover and many lost 90 pence in the pound of all their hard earned!!

 

[Goldie87]

Thanks for adding some info, more can be found here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_United_Shoe_Machinery

 

[wolfism]

Unfortunately the employees became victim of one of the worst pension scams of all time just before the company went bust as their pension funds were raided after a takeover and many lost 90 pence in the pound of all their hard earned!!

It's a common theme unfortunately – a similar thing happened to Fletchers paper mill workers in Oldham. Just like Robert Maxwell did, when you need some cash, dip into the pension pot …

Some interesting photos, BTW - the very first one showing the concrete water tower also shows that a part of the factory is concrete framed, possibly a "Hennebique" frame – so it was probably built somewhere around 1910 or 1920. Same system as a lot of the car factories in Detroit. Looks like a huge explore.

 

[Foxylady]

Very interesting site. Great tower...and actual blueprints! Nice one!

 

[MD]

another visit by myself goldie87 and mr sam.
still finding things to see
bit of demo

open air

water tower

myself

not long left

and a view of wolsey

still finding things to see

 

[Goldie87]

It was good to get back to those parts by the canal, its been a long, long time since I looked round them!

 

[celestialjen]

Awesome! I was doing a bit of a recce on this place on Saturday afternoon. I walked in where all the units were and got a funny look from this guy wandering around, so shit out and went for a wander down the canal towpath where I did at least see 3 herons!

 

[Goldie87]

haha you will have to join us some time! I keep saying that, but all the explores this lately have been pretty last minute kinda things lol. I'll be about next weekend at least

 

[celestialjen]

Definitely.

There's a few places that I want to check out

 

[Goldie87]

Cool, pm will be on the way shortly!