Cosalt Plc - A fishy Explore Sep 2016

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Judderman62

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This explore saw two firsts for me, but all in good
time Ladies and Gents, all in good time.


The History

Cosalt Plc provided a very wide range of services to the shipping and
fishing Industries. Originally called the Great Grimsby Coal,
Salt & Tanning co. (Wonder where they got Cosalt from??)

They provided salt to preserve the fish, tanning to weatherproof
the sails, workwear for the fishermen and coal to power the vessels.

The company collapsed in 2013 with debts of £11.4 million and a
pension shortfall of £52 Million.

The Explore

I was in the area for reasons other than exploring and was meeting
up with a new acquaintance. We arrived at our chosen car park in the
pouring rain. My new friend suggested before heading off to the street
art event, for that was our purpose for being there, we take a quick spin
around the Dock area.

Seemed a plan to me so off we went. We saw an easy way past the fencing
and headed toward the building. An open door seemed too good an invitation
to ignore so in I slipped. I walked across the first room , heading to the
doorway into the next when I froze. Not 15 feet from me was a workman kneeling
on the floor.

I made a hasty retreat and back from whence I came. We needed to find another way in.
We circled the whole, rather long, building and round the back found an open door with
a van with trailer parked outside it. The asbestos removal crew.

We got in and quickly moved to the second floor to try and avoid any sightings by the workmen.

That's my first, first - first time I have explored somewhere while workers were on site and having
to avoid them. We ccontinued on our explore settling into it nicely, though I did wonder - audibly
and to my partner in trespass - what time these chapos may knock off, lest we get locked in.

Would it be 4pm , 2pm or might they finish at 1200 - it wasn't that far off 1200 now.
After a few close calls when the asbestos chaps sounded very close it went a little quiet.
Then I heard an engine start up and the van left the site. Had they gone for the day? or just to
go get some lunch? This left just the chap I'd seen at the start, as far as we knew - we'd heard
no one else. We carried on reagrdless until we felt it was time to get back into town for our
main reason for being there.

We made our way to our entrance point and my friend pushed the door ...annnnd .. yep you've
guessed it .. shut solid. We tried several other doors - all imovable. So we decided to try
some of the emergency exits. These were also all sealed tight.

My second, first - being locked inside an explore.


The Images

For those that may be interested in the techie details

All shot on a Canon 650D with Tamron 17-50mm and Canon 10-22mm
Aperture priority with exposure comp as and when needed.

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I see that someone has made off with the skirting boards, wood paneling and the fancy ornate feature above the door in picture 8. But nevertheless its a nice post.
 
No we're still stuck in there so if someone could .....

Yeah thankfully a way out was found .. we were most relieved as it wasn't looking good at the time.
 
I see that someone has made off with the skirting boards, wood paneling and the fancy ornate feature above the door in picture 8. But nevertheless its a nice post.

From the looks of it and the fact that there are asbestos removal crews inside, the nice bits have all been stripped off to be salvaged and sold on ready for demolition or redevelopment.
 
From the looks of it and the fact that there are asbestos removal crews inside, the nice bits have all been stripped off to be salvaged and sold on ready for demolition or redevelopment.

Nice set of photographs of an interior well visited by me during my working days. The Cosalt name came about due to the gradual rundown of the old traditional fishing industry and the complete scraping of the sail steadied drifter/trawler fleets, thus in the end the Company was supplying just coal for the boilers and salt for preservation of catches. The 'Cosalt' name gives an indication of what was historically supplied but also, by the loss of the two letters from 'coal', that salt was by far the more important trading commodity. This ploy of rebranding old established firms was in fact well used during transition/modernisation periods in the inter war years. As a boy I actually witnessed ( not that I fully understood the implications until much later on) the steady decline of the coal powered fishing fleets with oil and then the diesels of the more modern boats coming to prominence, when I was able to accompany father on his frequent business trips to the East Coast fishing ports.

The more interesting interiors are supposedly being removed whilst renovations are going on from what I have seen in print.

This building probably contains the last Victorian 'Sail Maker's Loft' in Grimsby.
 
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Oooh ta for all that info sir :)

Thanks for all the kind words peeps.

How did we get out .... nah that'd be telling ;) Suffice to say no force, damage or calling someone involved.
 
Nicely done avoiding the workers looks like it paid off. Loving the shots.
 
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