Right, my first report on here, and its pretty crap!!
Thought about putting this straight in the pit of despair, but as far as I know this place hasn't been done before on here, and there was good reason for my short visit, as you will see!!!
You live and learn I guess, and I thought that taking my bouncy and enthusiastic 18 month old labrador along would be good exercise for him, and a good excuse for me being where I was if I were to be rumbled!!............... What ACTUALLY happened is that he got tangled in every piece of undergrowth on the way there, then proceeded to make it impossible for me to take pictures, as I daren't let him off his lead (some big holes there!) and he pulled me around every time I tried to take a pic. Plus his panting made it impossible to hear anything so i had no idea if anybody was around!!!
The plan is to return very soon, without dog, and probably with another human if anybody is up for having a mooch round!
Anyway, back to the plan, Dunlop Precision Rubber was, as the name implies, a rubber manufacturing facility in the small old mining village of Bagworth, near Coalville in Leicestershire. Can't find much on the net, but I know a little as I worked at a much bigger rubber plant not too far away. They manufactured parts for aircraft mainly, such as the window rubbers and various bulkhead seals and the like, from various synthetic rubbers. These were formulated on site from their raw ingredients, and then vulcanised into the finished products.
The fate of the Bagworth plant was sealed during the various takeovers and buyouts within the Dunlop group, revolving around the BTR selloff (our factory also suffered at their hands!)
Anyway, the plant has been closed since around 2006 (my memory not internet info!) and has been well and truly Pikied to death, no great surprise as it is just up the road from "Costalot" the well know and now permanent traveller site!
Access is easy if you think a little (well tbh its easy anywhere, its just that the front of the site is onto a busy road opposite a lot of houses in the centre of a village so that way in is not the most sensible!) Security appears non-existent, but bear in mind that the company that uses part of the site is still trading (I think) so best avoid that bit!
As I said, please go easy on me, lots there to see, although its wrecked, lots I didn't see, and even more I couldn't photograph due to an overenthusiastic hound!!! I also only have a very nasty compact camera to take the pics on, so I ain't going to get any photography awards!!
View of the rear of the site, car park etc, even the bike shed was trashed!!!
View down the driveway at the rear of the main part of the site, the tall bit of roof just visible between the two pitches on the right of the pic is the top of the mixing building, I assume its principally the Carbon Black bin storage tower. Couldn't take the mutt up there as he would have become a black lab (anyone who's been in a rubber plant will know what I mean!)
A pikied corridor
Didn't know what DERP meant when I started looking on here, now I do!! Watch out for big holes in here!! Some large foundations I think, certainly full of water now!!
Sodding Pikies!! They use steam heating in many of these rubber plants to heat all the vulcanising presses, now there are steam lines all over the place where they have been ripped out to get at the copper cable and fresh water pipes!
Same again, not a lot in the way of electrics left!!
I had a mooch in the mixing building, that was my first port of call as I hoped that some remnants of the Mill or Mixer might remain (big gearboxes and motors!!) but nothing is left in there, just the huge concrete foundation pads, again dog stopped play on the photos, but this can all be added following a return trip, with a look upstairs at the carbon tower, and also a look into all the upstairs offices that I didn't even get a look at.
And here is the reason for the lack of photos, looks so cute, but such a pest!! At least his paws survived all the glass!! (I tried to avoid most of it!)
So there we go, total derp, but something new, and at least 60% of the site still to look at.
Thought about putting this straight in the pit of despair, but as far as I know this place hasn't been done before on here, and there was good reason for my short visit, as you will see!!!
You live and learn I guess, and I thought that taking my bouncy and enthusiastic 18 month old labrador along would be good exercise for him, and a good excuse for me being where I was if I were to be rumbled!!............... What ACTUALLY happened is that he got tangled in every piece of undergrowth on the way there, then proceeded to make it impossible for me to take pictures, as I daren't let him off his lead (some big holes there!) and he pulled me around every time I tried to take a pic. Plus his panting made it impossible to hear anything so i had no idea if anybody was around!!!
The plan is to return very soon, without dog, and probably with another human if anybody is up for having a mooch round!
Anyway, back to the plan, Dunlop Precision Rubber was, as the name implies, a rubber manufacturing facility in the small old mining village of Bagworth, near Coalville in Leicestershire. Can't find much on the net, but I know a little as I worked at a much bigger rubber plant not too far away. They manufactured parts for aircraft mainly, such as the window rubbers and various bulkhead seals and the like, from various synthetic rubbers. These were formulated on site from their raw ingredients, and then vulcanised into the finished products.
The fate of the Bagworth plant was sealed during the various takeovers and buyouts within the Dunlop group, revolving around the BTR selloff (our factory also suffered at their hands!)
Anyway, the plant has been closed since around 2006 (my memory not internet info!) and has been well and truly Pikied to death, no great surprise as it is just up the road from "Costalot" the well know and now permanent traveller site!
Access is easy if you think a little (well tbh its easy anywhere, its just that the front of the site is onto a busy road opposite a lot of houses in the centre of a village so that way in is not the most sensible!) Security appears non-existent, but bear in mind that the company that uses part of the site is still trading (I think) so best avoid that bit!
As I said, please go easy on me, lots there to see, although its wrecked, lots I didn't see, and even more I couldn't photograph due to an overenthusiastic hound!!! I also only have a very nasty compact camera to take the pics on, so I ain't going to get any photography awards!!
View of the rear of the site, car park etc, even the bike shed was trashed!!!
View down the driveway at the rear of the main part of the site, the tall bit of roof just visible between the two pitches on the right of the pic is the top of the mixing building, I assume its principally the Carbon Black bin storage tower. Couldn't take the mutt up there as he would have become a black lab (anyone who's been in a rubber plant will know what I mean!)
A pikied corridor
Didn't know what DERP meant when I started looking on here, now I do!! Watch out for big holes in here!! Some large foundations I think, certainly full of water now!!
Sodding Pikies!! They use steam heating in many of these rubber plants to heat all the vulcanising presses, now there are steam lines all over the place where they have been ripped out to get at the copper cable and fresh water pipes!
Same again, not a lot in the way of electrics left!!
I had a mooch in the mixing building, that was my first port of call as I hoped that some remnants of the Mill or Mixer might remain (big gearboxes and motors!!) but nothing is left in there, just the huge concrete foundation pads, again dog stopped play on the photos, but this can all be added following a return trip, with a look upstairs at the carbon tower, and also a look into all the upstairs offices that I didn't even get a look at.
And here is the reason for the lack of photos, looks so cute, but such a pest!! At least his paws survived all the glass!! (I tried to avoid most of it!)
So there we go, total derp, but something new, and at least 60% of the site still to look at.
