Williamson's Fire & Rescue Equipment, Oldham May '15

mookster · May 11, 2015

To me this was some proper exploring. All I had been given was the name of a premises in Oldham that might be worth a look on the way past, a few days before I set off up north with Landie Man. I had no idea what it looked like on the outside, hadn't seen any photos of the inside on the internet and had no idea how to get in beforehand. Considering the last time I had explored a building in Oldham it was set on fire by some yobbos whilst we were inside I was slightly skeptical of doing anything in the area!

It turned out to be a really nice site, not the biggest industrial location ever but one with a lot of goodies to poke through and some lovely features which in turn reminded me of both George Barnsley's and George Dyke's factories elsewhere.

A bit of history borrowed from their still active website...

Williamsons have been trading from the same premises in Mumps Bridge Oldham since 1920. This private family business is still run by members of the Williamson family. The business has grown considerably since the outset and now covers over two acres of warehouse space. Since 1969 we have become a major supplier of Fire Fighting and Rescue Equipment much of this equipment is to Home Office Specification and is available in both new and refurbished condition. Since 1975 we have also been suppliers of all variant types of new and refurbished conveyor systems. We hold considerable stocks of equipment, and manufacture bespoke items to customers specification

Sadly the company went into liquidation in June 2013 (although parts, particularly the upstairs of the shop area looked to have been empty for decades!) and the land has sat vacant since. The owners put the closure down to the development of the metrolink cutting off their business from customers.

We were pushed for time a bit with parking restrictions etc so my time poking around in the offices was sadly shorter than I would have liked, but I enjoyed my wander around here. Oldham has redeemed itself.