The Day
Seeing this on the train on the way to Liverpool, we returned back from a bunch of fails to St Helens, with this as a backup plan.
History (from another report)
Ravenhead Glass was a glassworks near Ravenhead Colliery, Lancashire, North West England. It was founded in 1850 by Frances Dixon and John Merson after a move from their earlier (1842) factory at Thatto Heath near St Helens. In 1852, this factory was sold to the Pilkington Brothers and Frances Dixon then acquired a 13-acre (53,000 m2) site at Ravenhead, building a new gas-powered glassworks. In 1913 the company merged with five other glass manufacturers, forming UGB (United Glass Bottle Manufacturers Limited). Until 1931 these companies were primarily bottle makers but they branched out into domestic tableware in the 1930s making bowls, jugs and drinking glasses, many of these showing Art Deco influences. From 1947, Alexander Hardie Williamson 1907-1994) was employed as consultant designer and during the 27 years he was with the company, he created over 1700 designs. Some of these were produced in their millions for public houses and restaurants and included the Paris goblet, the Dimple beer mug and the Babycham-style Champagne glass. He also designed a range of tableware, the Kilner jar and a collectable range of decorated tumblers. In 1972, when Hardie Williamson retired, Ravenhead appointed two freelance designers; Annette Meech (who designed the Rosy Tumblers, Apollo and Solar range) and John Clappison (who designed Barmasters, Elegance, White Fire, Topaz, Icelantic, Olympiad etc. and also refined and developed Hardie Williamson's Siesta range). Following a downturn in the company's fortunes (and various changes of ownership) in the late 1980s, it went into administration in 2001 and the factory closed. There followed an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office, following reference to it by Merseyside Police, but it was closed for lack of sufficient evidence. In 2003 the Rayware Group, which bought the Ravenhead site announced that it would like to revitalise the brand, giving pint pots and other traditional glasses the Ravenhead name, placing the Ravenhead logo and its products in the Group's portfolio. A fair section of the site was demolished in 2010; the rest of the buildings will be demolished soon after the blue asbestos is removed from the office block. As it is the remaining buildings are totally devoid of anything of interests; the metal thieves has stripped anything not bolted down and then moved onto everything which was bolted down; various small fires have left their mark along with the special brew cans.
The Explore
Dumb easy access, I could tell that this is a popular hang out place with the masses of cans and other stuff lying around. Pretty bare inside to be honest, one half of the building is definitely better than the other. Note as well that trains come right past it and it is very easy for you to be seen.
Pictures
As I said it was hard to find cool bits to take pictures in here but I tried my best. Let me know what you think
Thanks for reading
Seeing this on the train on the way to Liverpool, we returned back from a bunch of fails to St Helens, with this as a backup plan.
History (from another report)
Ravenhead Glass was a glassworks near Ravenhead Colliery, Lancashire, North West England. It was founded in 1850 by Frances Dixon and John Merson after a move from their earlier (1842) factory at Thatto Heath near St Helens. In 1852, this factory was sold to the Pilkington Brothers and Frances Dixon then acquired a 13-acre (53,000 m2) site at Ravenhead, building a new gas-powered glassworks. In 1913 the company merged with five other glass manufacturers, forming UGB (United Glass Bottle Manufacturers Limited). Until 1931 these companies were primarily bottle makers but they branched out into domestic tableware in the 1930s making bowls, jugs and drinking glasses, many of these showing Art Deco influences. From 1947, Alexander Hardie Williamson 1907-1994) was employed as consultant designer and during the 27 years he was with the company, he created over 1700 designs. Some of these were produced in their millions for public houses and restaurants and included the Paris goblet, the Dimple beer mug and the Babycham-style Champagne glass. He also designed a range of tableware, the Kilner jar and a collectable range of decorated tumblers. In 1972, when Hardie Williamson retired, Ravenhead appointed two freelance designers; Annette Meech (who designed the Rosy Tumblers, Apollo and Solar range) and John Clappison (who designed Barmasters, Elegance, White Fire, Topaz, Icelantic, Olympiad etc. and also refined and developed Hardie Williamson's Siesta range). Following a downturn in the company's fortunes (and various changes of ownership) in the late 1980s, it went into administration in 2001 and the factory closed. There followed an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office, following reference to it by Merseyside Police, but it was closed for lack of sufficient evidence. In 2003 the Rayware Group, which bought the Ravenhead site announced that it would like to revitalise the brand, giving pint pots and other traditional glasses the Ravenhead name, placing the Ravenhead logo and its products in the Group's portfolio. A fair section of the site was demolished in 2010; the rest of the buildings will be demolished soon after the blue asbestos is removed from the office block. As it is the remaining buildings are totally devoid of anything of interests; the metal thieves has stripped anything not bolted down and then moved onto everything which was bolted down; various small fires have left their mark along with the special brew cans.
The Explore
Dumb easy access, I could tell that this is a popular hang out place with the masses of cans and other stuff lying around. Pretty bare inside to be honest, one half of the building is definitely better than the other. Note as well that trains come right past it and it is very easy for you to be seen.
Pictures
As I said it was hard to find cool bits to take pictures in here but I tried my best. Let me know what you think
Thanks for reading
For some reason the police wouldn't believe I was just taking photos so came to investigate, they laughed a lot when we met and saw my camera. Spent the next 30 minutes or so wandering around with them as they wanted a mooch themselves as it was well known for metal theft at the time.
