Report - Liverpool Hydraulics 2 - Thomas and Jones (TEJAY) Ltd, Liverpool, Dec, 2017)

[urbanchemist]

An abandoned food packing factory on the edge of the Vauxhall area of Liverpool (53.415844, -2.982958).
Thomas and Jones (TEJAY) Ltd seems to have operated from 1924 - 2010, with the latest literature inside dating from the mid 80’s.
Not a great deal to see in this one - most of the machinery had gone leaving just fixings and pulleys in the ceilings of some rooms.
Later edit - some of the remaining machinery turned out to be hydraulically powered, see pictures at the end of the post.

Visited with junior. Pictures go from the basement up.

Not the most hygienic of food places.

View south from the roof showing the radio city tower (aka ‘de magic mushroom’), and in the middle the sandstone spire of the municipal buildings on Dale St.

There was a considerable amount of drug paraphernalia in this place which was surprising since access is currently far too inconvenient for your average questing junky. Looking around, drug action now seems to have shifted to a nearby shed (sorry about the focus in the last shot).

Charming spot.

 

[pigeonboy]

Nice pictures!

 

[WildBoyz]

Always wondered what it was like in here. Good set of snaps

 

[albino-jay]

nice mate. really like that.

 

[Alyxxxx]

Nice shots.

 

[Baggy trousers]

Nice little wander that, loving that retro fan on the wall!

 

[clebby]

Knocking em out the park mate. Keep it up!

 

[J4M35_UK]

That needle photo gives me the creeps

 

[Liverpool Urbex]

Great Stuff.
That Axis packaging is fucked, i was in there the other week ran into a druggie ahaha

 

[BrainL]

Another great report again!!! That last pic is horrible though..

 

[Ann G]

I worked there in the 1980s. There wasn't any machinery just a manual hoist. The working conditions were pretty grim even in the office.

 

[dweeb]

Knocking em out the park mate. Keep it up!

If I took you here Clebby I'd never hear the end of it!

Very nice air

 

[urbanchemist]

I worked there in the 1980s. There wasn't any machinery just a manual hoist. The working conditions were pretty grim even in the office.

Interesting - was this just a redistribution/repackaging place then?
I imagine the building will be flattened fairly soon like much of the rest of that neighbourhood.

 

[Ann G]

Interesting - was this just a redistribution/repackaging place then?
I imagine the building will be flattened fairly soon like much of the rest of that neighbourhood.

The company supplied catering size tinned meats and dried fruits to hospitals in the NW and N Wales. Just a supply warehouse and another industry that thatcher succeeded in closing down by cutting out the middle man.

 

[urbanchemist]

A few more photos from a revisit here since I didn’t realise what I was looking at the first time.

The eighth pic down in the original report shows a lift shaft with some wreckage and a large wheely thing with belts on the right.

At the time I wondered vaguely why a goods lift in a small factory would need such a complicated-looking mechanism.

Now having found a few more of these I recognise it as a water-powered hydraulic ram, also known as a ’jigger’.

These are relics of the ‘hydraulic age’ and not that common so worth another look.

In fact there are two rams here, one for the goods lift and one for the loading bay.

The hydraulic main which served factories and warehouses stops just short of this area on a 1914 map, so presumably it was connected later, probably in the 1920s.

I did this one at night just because I happened to be passing after dark when I remembered about it.



Characteristic pressurised water pipes with oval flanges.

The top and bottom sheaves of the jigger for the goods lift.

This spans three floors, with the ram extending down into the basement.

These things can be mounted in any orientation - it extends downwards in this case probably because the empty goods lift was heavy enough on descending to pull the ram back up again expelling the used water.

The loading bay from the outside.

The loading bay jigger also spans three floors, starting in the basement (left) to end up poking up through the second floor (right).

This one, which is missing its ropes/cables, extends upwards and probably reset under its own weight.

It was made by Waygood-Otis who were called this from 1914 onwards - Waygood made some of the earliest hydraulically-powered lifts.

The jigger was replaced at some stage by a much smaller electric lift (W Warburton and Co Halifax).

Since I was up there, a view from the roof.