Report - Alcan (nee High Duty Alloys) Workington Oct 2018

[dweeb]

Alcan High Duty Alloys Extrusions. The factory opened in 1940. It was the first factory on the Lillyhall Industrial Estate. The people make Aluminium Alloy Extrusions. There are 598 Men and 48 Women. The goods are sold world wide. The average wage is about £150 per week. There are 4 shifts morning afternoon nights and days. Workington plant at Lillyhall produces stringers and bars for the aerospace and engineering markets, also they make parts for the space shuttle and Concorde.

In 2003 Alcan enquired Pechiney which in turn the site was rename to Alcan Pechiney Alloys factory halved its workforce between 2000 and 2003 and was bought out by Alcan in 2003.

Production from Workington moved to Alcan’s facilities in Issoire and Montreuil- Juigné in France.Workington has stopped production at the end of June 2007 and it closed the site with the loss of 161 jobs, finally in early 2008.

The best site I'd never heard of!

Speed had mentioned that this place might be worth a look, and despite being derelict for a number of years now, fires and a good dose of smashey and smashey it was actually well worth a visit. The actual manufacturing sheds were very bare and fairly uninteresting, however the labs, offices and nurses block were in fact very dated with much of interest strewn about. I'll let the photos do the talking but it was a pleasure to have a wander around the kind of place that used to be our bread and butter...

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Some fine retro paper above false ceiling level!

As the place was built in 1940 it contains purpose built air raid shelters. These are packed full of everything from drawings, records and even the stuff for the kiddie's xmas party!

Sadly the early records were mostly burnt, but some dating from the war could be read. Note the section for "ARP"

Hand lift for the chemical stores below the lab, still in working order

 

[Brewtal]

Oh yeah that’s my kinda place! Lovely stuff mate!

 

[host]

Really nice not seen the air raid shelter before.

 

[Ojay]

A good few days poking about that was, next ❤️

 

[dave]

Went here a few years ago and never got round to posting a report. It looks a lot worse now. The records room was great, it looks like some of it may have suffered a fire.

 

[raisinwing]

Awesome stuff, enjoyed having a wander around here a couple of years back, I enjoyed what I did see but seemed to miss a lot of nice looking bits!

 

[Bikin Glynn]

That looks a very interesting place well reported!

 

[Speed]

Shame. If I'd have seen some other decent reports I might have prioritised it a bit higher. We would definitely have benifitted by being a few years earlier (If not 10!). There's only one other report on here that makes it look any good :

 

[Six]

Very good.

I would actually go there.

 

[Ojay]

A++++ would sleep again..

I actually enjoyed this place, like we said, be good to have seen this a good few years back like

 

[Speed]

Thought I'd add a few phone shots of some of the good bits.. didn't have much time to get my camera out.. which is usually a good sign!
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[Markus19]

Demo work now just starting on this site so this place will soon be history.....

 

[Speed]

Shame. Was a decent hotel that place