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- Mar 20, 2013
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I actually visited this place thinking it was just the one building at the front but was surprised to find that there was loads at the back ! made for a good couple of hours wander round and I still didn't cover the whole site as there looks like more newer building close by are now disused !!
Some History then the pics (a lot of them, sorry !!)
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..
Some History then the pics (a lot of them, sorry !!)
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..
