Ahahah, I was wondering if anyone else around here had noticed this place. I scoped it out a couple of weeks ago. Potentially expect a report in a couple of months as it's second on my list of local priorities, and when the mood strikes I will not be stopped...
First things first, make sure to bring an asbestos mask if you're checking out the places being referred to here. There are small buildings within the Thomas Ware & Sons site that are unused and have big asbestos warnings on them. I'd imagine that the other abandoned buildings on that site would be the same.
From what I could tell on initial investigation, the entire site (multiple locations - not just Thomas Ware & Sons) comprises 4 different businesses (I believe 2 are active, but might be wrong, and yes that does include Vauxhall House). Yes, TW&S is absolutely still in use, and annoyingly their business schedule seems to be almost random. I've walked past at 10:30pm before and had someone drive out of the car park. I went back again at night and from what I could gather, while on the Coronation Road side they are separated by walls, on the side of the river they seem to basically share the riverbed as a gate? As in, I don't think there's a barrier (beyond a standard metal fence) preventing entry along the four different sites as there is on the road side. However, there is a caravan which looks relatively clean on the river side, so could be someone living in there who might notice any trespassers.
With regards to entry, if I'm correct in the above assumption that the locations are semi-connected on the river side, entrance is laughably easy. Yes, there is one site with a bunch of towers / PIRs which I wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole but you might be able to get round the back of it... Failing that, I was thinking of just waiting for high tide and floating across in my canoe. Would be James Bond as fuck and could easily push off from the big red square building opposite it.
With regards to Vauxhall House, that's definitely empty. There's a metal fence stacked on top of a metal fence blocking entry, but I gave it a test climb (not intending to climb over) and it's stable. Should be safe to climb over. If you don't want to though, there's that rust bucket shithole of a caravan parked outside the petrol station, and behind that is a standard fence. Could prob enter Vauxhall House from there but would require a little cheeky test to see if anyone lives in it. I think the aforementioned towers / PIRs are for Vauxhall House, as the road does curve round towards the back of it, again just from what I could see as a standard pedestrian on the pavement.
