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Steelworks


Guest Gunner3

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Guest Gunner3

Hi i'm new on here and i've been living in Sheffield for about six years and also happen to be fascinated by steelworks and their history. I have found that in general industrial history is horribly neglected. Buildings that were once alive with activity are destroyed with *** abandon. Does anyone have any info and/or pictures of sheffield steelworks and factories past and present? I am particularly interested in the Union Carbide site on Claywheels lane and the former steel peach and tozer plant at Templeborough, part of which is now magna, and generally most of the Don valley!

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Guest tsavo

Welcome to the site, Gunner3. Try 'Picture Sheffield' for old pics, we use it a lot. It's well worth a visit and a good place to start..

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I've asked a friend who's got pictures of the place to get his backside on here and post em too

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Right

Let's start with the Union Carbide plant

There's currently plans to flatten the place and replace with a housing development so the guys that took the time to get in there and photograph the place are owed our gratitude.

Union Carbide is a funny old site really. There has been some buildings demolished, and the rest of the shop floors seem to be used for various purposes, including a machinery breakers yard. As the main factory building was plastered with ball cameras, we made our way to the companies welfare and engineering buildings. Aside from the cameras there is also pikeys in one of the buildings and a white van that patrols around the waste ground around the buildings. While we were there we saw a group of young lads stealing something or other in a canvas sack, and a shifty bloke with a hacksaw who ran at the site of us!

Before we reached the welfare block we attempted the companies concrete water tower, but found the first flight of stairs had been gas cut, and was lying on the floor. There seemed no quick way to climb the gap in steps, and we were right in view of the pikeys, so we continued to the welfare block.

All of the buildings at this end were built in the 1960's. It seems the company was really prospering in that era. The welfare block consisted of the fantastic retro main hall, used as a canteen and function room, locker and shower rooms and the medical centre. The whole building was full of air soft pellets... the site is used as an air soft course once a month. In the kitchen of the main hall the companies records were stacked up in various cabinets, some dating back from the 60's. The hall had a projection room, but unfortunately it had been stripped. The names of long serving employees decorated the walls.

The shower room was unusual. There was a row of "dirty" lockers, which led to the showers and then a row of "clean" lockers. The room was vast, and the amount of lockers gave an idea of how many people once worked in the factory.

The engineering dept was very intact, still fitted with 1960's laboratories complete with X-ray machines and fume cupboards. I would have liked to explore further in here, but we were so close to the pikeys we did not want to push our luck.

The chimneys were climbable, the metal rungs almost reaching to the floor... but unfortunately I still cant find the bottle to climb a chimney!!

As usual, there are plans to demolish the whole site for housing.

All text & images copyright © Dweeb 2006 - our sincere thanks to his team for use of images and text

http://www.lightingthedarkness.co.uk/Union%20Carbide.htm

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When I worked at Rixsons there was a fella there who had worked at Union Carbide, or British Acheson as it was before, and he kept telling me he was only working there (at Rixsons) til they called him back......he'd been there 15 years by then, and shortly afterwards UC was 'mothballed'. Sadly, I left too not long after that, and my old mate is now passed away.

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Guest Gunner3

I used to work at the APW factory at the end of Claywheels lane, deep in Beeley woods, and i used to cycle past UCAR every day. Hence my interest

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