Cobb Slater Ltd, Darley Dale, Derbyshire - Jan 09

Cobb Slater Ltd was established in 1990 were a technical injection moulding company who specialised in the design and manufacture of plastic rolling element bearings and assemblies, technical custom mouldings and secuirty products for domestic electricity supplies.

From a bit of research they seemed quite innovative aswell, and made the bearings for the wheels of this.. http://www.eurekamagazine.co.uk/article/15314/Making-the-case-for-brushless-wheels.aspx

They closed in May 2007 after BNL, another firm involved with plastics bought all the shares in the company to basically, strip it of it's assets and know-how ect to make their company bigger and better. That meant the loss of 60 jobs which as was said in a news article I found, was very bad news for a small community like Darley Dale.

When I visited the building seemed pretty secure although I think pikeys had been it at some point as there was a bit of cable sheathing outside. I couldn't do too much probing as it's overlooked on 1 side by houses, the A6 on another and fields on the other 2. I noticed a farmer in one of them paying attention to what I was doing, so thought it was best left to another day..

I've driven past before and seen the gates open with a police dog van in the yard....


There was a huge shipping container round the back, which was full...


Also round the back were what looked like plastic sugar bowls, but they probably aren't




My only shots of inside, everytime I tried taking pics through glass nothing came out






Obligatory Chair Shot






the remainign few are on my photobucket, http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/mig_v6/Cobb Slater/

Arr thats a real shame. I lived as a teenager in Darley Dale and your right. These closures make a big difference in a small community like that.
Seems to be going a little down hill latey around those parts. Even the toilets had been boarded up last time I visited! We always used to comment that they had no graffiti and never got smashed up.
I'd still move back at the drop of a hat if I could get a decent job in that area.

This was my Grandads company from late 70's until mi 90's when the family had to sell due to his early onset Alzhiemers. He was in my own and man peoples eye a true gentlman. I spent many happy weekends stopping at their lovely "Eversleigh" House and then moving in full time to help my Gran care for him.

As the eldest grandson, I was being groomed to take over from him and spent school hol's and work experiences in the Tool room, Drawing Ofice and shop floor. Alas I was too young when my gran made the decision to sell.

He was a Glider instrument repirman during national service and was posted in Egypt. After meeting my Gran and settling down, he become a professional draughstman and had already toyed with the cyclone vaccum years before dyson. He was tasked with drawing a huge version to remove sawdust from a factory floor and saw the potential then.

I still have a briefcase of blueprints with some very unusal inutrial and unknow devices. There was talk that the previous owner of Cobb-Slater - Mr Cobb, had designed a perpetual motion machine. My grandad would visit him in the nursing home and they'd always get this small suitcase out and speak in hushed tones.

Not much left to even acknowledge the existence now. A small cull de sac has been built and at the front is a small plaque.

I miss him so much as he was my mentor and confidant. My Dad was often working long hours and was distant, whereas my Grandad in his prime was a jazz lovin, bone rattling Gatsby!

op1um4themasses said:

This was my Grandads company from late 70's until mi 90's when the family had to sell due to his early onset Alzhiemers. He was in my own and man peoples eye a true gentlman. I spent many happy weekends stopping at their lovely "Eversleigh" House and then moving in full time to help my Gran care for him.

As the eldest grandson, I was being groomed to take over from him and spent school hol's and work experiences in the Tool room, Drawing Ofice and shop floor. Alas I was too young when my gran made the decision to sell.

He was a Glider instrument repirman during national service and was posted in Egypt. After meeting my Gran and settling down, he become a professional draughstman and had already toyed with the cyclone vaccum years before dyson. He was tasked with drawing a huge version to remove sawdust from a factory floor and saw the potential then.

I still have a briefcase of blueprints with some very unusal inutrial and unknow devices. There was talk that the previous owner of Cobb-Slater - Mr Cobb, had designed a perpetual motion machine. My grandad would visit him in the nursing home and they'd always get this small suitcase out and speak in hushed tones.

Not much left to even acknowledge the existence now. A small cull de sac has been built and at the front is a small plaque.

I miss him so much as he was my mentor and confidant. My Dad was often working long hours and was distant, whereas my Grandad in his prime was a jazz lovin, bone rattling Gatsby!

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great to hear some family history. I trust that you had no desire to carry on the business?
Its a shame but most places go that way. I am however manager of an engineering company in Kettering that is believed to be the oldest company in kettering, we can trace the history back around 200 years & we are still going.

op1um4themasses said:

This was my Grandads company from late 70's until mi 90's when the family had to sell due to his early onset Alzhiemers. He was in my own and man peoples eye a true gentlman. I spent many happy weekends stopping at their lovely "Eversleigh" House and then moving in full time to help my Gran care for him.

As the eldest grandson, I was being groomed to take over from him and spent school hol's and work experiences in the Tool room, Drawing Ofice and shop floor. Alas I was too young when my gran made the decision to sell.

He was a Glider instrument repirman during national service and was posted in Egypt. After meeting my Gran and settling down, he become a professional draughstman and had already toyed with the cyclone vaccum years before dyson. He was tasked with drawing a huge version to remove sawdust from a factory floor and saw the potential then.

I still have a briefcase of blueprints with some very unusal inutrial and unknow devices. There was talk that the previous owner of Cobb-Slater - Mr Cobb, had designed a perpetual motion machine. My grandad would visit him in the nursing home and they'd always get this small suitcase out and speak in hushed tones.

Not much left to even acknowledge the existence now. A small cull de sac has been built and at the front is a small plaque.

I miss him so much as he was my mentor and confidant. My Dad was often working long hours and was distant, whereas my Grandad in his prime was a jazz lovin, bone rattling Gatsby!

Click to expand...

I'm a newbie myself here, know what you mean by toolmaking and just want to say thankyou for your contribution.

A few connections here.

"http://www.eurekamagazine.co.uk/article/15314/Making-the-case-for-brushless-wheels.aspx" I tried the link, but the page was not found. Any other suggestions to find it?

"When I visited the building seemed pretty secure although I think pikeys had been it at some point as there was a bit of cable sheathing outside." Just outside Bournemouth, a large landfill area has become a so-called solar farm - in truth a nuclear powered (the sun is a great ball of nuclear energy) electricity generating station. Talking to one of the 24/7 security guards, pikeys are nicking the cable. I saw a pile of lengths of cable stripped of the copper wire.

"After meeting my Gran and settling down, he become a professional draughstman and had already toyed with the cyclone vacuum years before Dyson" Pity - he could have 'cleaned up". When I visited the Coober Pedy opal mines in Australia in 1977, I saw great fans mounted on lorry bodies. The fans were connected to large-diameter flexible hoses to suck out the unwanted gravel. And they were called 'cyclones'. I never saw the potential for using the idea to make a domestic vacuum cleaner. No 'lateral thought'. Had I done, people might today be using Haymans!!!

Natters5 said:

There is still a plastic moulding company in Darley called Slaters maybe an unrelated coincidence or the so called asset strippers who actually salvaged what they could and carried on in the business. They make plastic parts and kits for model railways as well as sheets of textured plastic (brick walls etc) and various different plastic extrusions used throughout the model making hobby.

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Slaters are a long standing plastics company going back at least to the 1960's when I started plastic modelling. They were originally based in Matlock Bath near 'Gulliver's Island' and moved to Darley Dale at a guess around 2010ish?

Just-jo said:

I'm a newbie myself here, know what you mean by toolmaking and just want to say thankyou for your contribution.

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That's appreciated.
We're living in some very strange times for sure.
I'm so gutted I never got to speak with my grandad, man to man as it were. He was a technical visionary.
Prior to starting the injection moulding business and then buying the slaters business, he'd worked for a die casting metal works. He tried to tell them to start making things out of plastic. Typically he was laughed out the boardroom by the shortsighted management.
He ended up sourcing the machines himself from Germany and with his first order for medicine cups, paid for the machines. I have a photo album documenting the install. Might upload if any interest.

op1um4themasses said:

This was my Grandads company from late 70's until mi 90's when the family had to sell due to his early onset Alzhiemers. He was in my own and man peoples eye a true gentlman. I spent many happy weekends stopping at their lovely "Eversleigh" House and then moving in full time to help my Gran care for him.

As the eldest grandson, I was being groomed to take over from him and spent school hol's and work experiences in the Tool room, Drawing Ofice and shop floor. Alas I was too young when my gran made the decision to sell.

He was a Glider instrument repirman during national service and was posted in Egypt. After meeting my Gran and settling down, he become a professional draughstman and had already toyed with the cyclone vaccum years before dyson. He was tasked with drawing a huge version to remove sawdust from a factory floor and saw the potential then.

I still have a briefcase of blueprints with some very unusal inutrial and unknow devices. There was talk that the previous owner of Cobb-Slater - Mr Cobb, had designed a perpetual motion machine. My grandad would visit him in the nursing home and they'd always get this small suitcase out and speak in hushed tones.

Not much left to even acknowledge the existence now. A small cull de sac has been built and at the front is a small plaque.

I miss him so much as he was my mentor and confidant. My Dad was often working long hours and was distant, whereas my Grandad in his prime was a jazz lovin, bone rattling Gatsby!

Click to expand...

It's so good to read things like this about places people have for years driven passed and wondered about, it gives a great insight. Thanks for posting! It's so sad it was sold before you got your chance to take over. I'd love to see some of those blueprints!

Roderick said:

It's so good to read things like this about places people have for years driven passed and wondered about, it gives a great insight. Thanks for posting! It's so sad it was sold before you got your chance to take over. I'd love to see some of those blueprints!

Click to expand...

Thanks,
I try not to dwell on what could have been... I like to think I've inherited the old boys eye for the next big thing.
We did do parts for Mod but they didn't tell us what the parts were? He also had patents for air flow sensors and other aeronautical sensors.
He also helped develop the pager, although in UK this was installed in hospitals and still used today (terminology anyway)
They "bleep" a Dr via a telephone. This alerts the Dr anywhere within the hospital and tells them location.
Maybe there's a fortune sitting on the blueprints!?
Am thinking of framing a few for my office.

op1um4themasses said:

Thanks,
I try not to dwell on what could have been... I like to think I've inherited the old boys eye for the next big thing.
We did do parts for Mod but they didn't tell us what the parts were? He also had patents for air flow sensors and other aeronautical sensors.
He also helped develop the pager, although in UK this was installed in hospitals and still used today (terminology anyway)
They "bleep" a Dr via a telephone. This alerts the Dr anywhere within the hospital and tells them location.
Maybe there's a fortune sitting on the blueprints!?
Am thinking of framing a few for my office.

Click to expand...

The directors failing to see that the future was in plastics was a bit like the Admiralty first sticking to sail, and then to coal-burning steamships. I bet the MoD did not say what the parts were for. "The need to know".

op1um4themasses said:

Thanks,
I try not to dwell on what could have been... I like to think I've inherited the old boys eye for the next big thing.
We did do parts for Mod but they didn't tell us what the parts were? He also had patents for air flow sensors and other aeronautical sensors.
He also helped develop the pager, although in UK this was installed in hospitals and still used today (terminology anyway)
They "bleep" a Dr via a telephone. This alerts the Dr anywhere within the hospital and tells them location.
Maybe there's a fortune sitting on the blueprints!?
Am thinking of framing a few for my office.

Click to expand...

As a retired design engineer I can appreciate that. Nice idea the framing.

op1um4themasses said:

This was my Grandads company from late 70's until mi 90's when the family had to sell due to his early onset Alzhiemers. He was in my own and man peoples eye a true gentlman. I spent many happy weekends stopping at their lovely "Eversleigh" House and then moving in full time to help my Gran care for him.

As the eldest grandson, I was being groomed to take over from him and spent school hol's and work experiences in the Tool room, Drawing Ofice and shop floor. Alas I was too young when my gran made the decision to sell.

He was a Glider instrument repirman during national service and was posted in Egypt. After meeting my Gran and settling down, he become a professional draughstman and had already toyed with the cyclone vaccum years before dyson. He was tasked with drawing a huge version to remove sawdust from a factory floor and saw the potential then.

I still have a briefcase of blueprints with some very unusal inutrial and unknow devices. There was talk that the previous owner of Cobb-Slater - Mr Cobb, had designed a perpetual motion machine. My grandad would visit him in the nursing home and they'd always get this small suitcase out and speak in hushed tones.

Not much left to even acknowledge the existence now. A small cull de sac has been built and at the front is a small plaque.

I miss him so much as he was my mentor and confidant. My Dad was often working long hours and was distant, whereas my Grandad in his prime was a jazz lovin, bone rattling Gatsby!

Click to expand...

Hi,
I’m a member of the U3A History Group 5 based in St Elphin’s Darley Dale and it will soon be my turn to do a local history talk, therefore I thought I would follow up on another factory that was based in Darley Dale that no longer exists and finding information is limited but there was a connection to Cobb Slater Ltd who received Bakelite to manufacture some of Cobb Slaters Instruments. That led me to think there might be more content for the talk if I combined interesting information, anecdotes and old photographs of the factory. If you have such information would you be willing to share it with me [email protected]. I would of course acknowledge the sources of information