ICI Imagedata, Brantham May 2019

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mookster

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So like me, I assume you thought that the site that once housed the mighty and ruined British Xylonite/Wardle Storeys factory in Brantham was now devoid of anything of interest, right? Well, like me, you thought wrong however a tip off from mikeymutt had me making the trip eastwards...Whilst the BX site is long gone, there are parts of the adjacent still active works which are derelict and abandoned, and have been for years. Parts of them were explored number of years back however since his post it would appear various bits have been flattened or incorporated into the working buildings, however this delicious large structure is standing empty and ready for exploring.

There is a lot of confusing history around the BX site, it had so many different names over the years and many of those were used at the same time it would appear. This area was once a joint venture between BX and Ilford, running under the name Bexford producing thermal films. It was taken over by ICI at some point in the 1960s and remained operational as ICI Imagedata before being taken over by ITW Imagedata in 2010, who still operate out of part of the site up to the present. I'm not entirely sure when this area closed, however.

This place was a great surprise to me, I knew it had some decent things to see in it but ended up being far more than I expected. The main part of the building is taken up by a trio of massive, three-level machines which produce, at the end, a large spool of clear film. Well there were three, one of them has been completely ripped out leaving just a gaping void but the other two are still intact, and both still have the film in the machine as if it was simply turned off one day and that was it. Situated above the machines are the plant rooms and other associated things, including a number of refrigeration compressors.

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Thanks for looking :)
 
Oh wow!
Still quite complete though.
I'm seeing lots of machine types I've never seen before but also pieces of machinery I've seen in Brett Oils such as metering devices.
I reckon it'll only be a matter of time before that gets swallowed up too.

The thermal film - was it for X-ray machines and the likes?
 
Jeeze glad I waited too post this till you had been to see it ha ha..great shots mate it's quite a nice place actually
 

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