Hepworth Refractories, Loxley..Yorkshire, January 2021

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Mikeymutt

Mikeymutt

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We popped in here on what started off as a very wet winters morning, luckily the weather improved when we got here. We honestly did not expect to be here long. But I think we ended up being here about four hours. Yes it's trashed, some buildings demolished, but the site is so big and spread out it took us a while to check it all out. It was better than we expected it to be, mainly due to the great graffiti about. And to me the Sheffield area is my favourite place for graffiti, with the likes of Coloquix and BrayK etc.
The Loxley valley works was first used for industry in the 17th century with two mills and steel works. The area is rich in ganister which was mined and used heavily in the production of hollow refractories. These bricks could withstand high temperatures so we're ideal for use in the steel industry. They lined the furnaces used in the production of steel. The site was vital during the second world war with 95% of the hollow refractories in the country. The site was so important in the production of steel for the war effort that the three firms occupying the sites had their own anti aircraft gun to protect the site. Hepworth owned the site till 1997. It was then bought out by Alpine and rebranded as Premier. With the decline of the steel industry in this country the site closed in 1999. The site was later bought in 2006 by Bovis with the plans to build hundreds of houses on site. This fell through due to planning issues and the site laid derelict still. It seems now though that new plans have come through and doing some reading it looks like demo has started in the rest of the site. Although it seems that a lot of controversy is following this with people worrying about the scenic area being ruined, also the valley is prone to flooding.

Starting off with the main factory. The chimney still remains intact.
Their is plenty of graffiti in this area.

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This was the canteen area. For some reason they had painted it in a salmon pinky colour.

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Next up is the adminstration block and offices. We thought this would just be a dark shell. Working by torchlight we got to the centre were it was light to be greeted by a really nice art gallery.

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Plenty of Brayk art here.

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An artist called Trench.

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A nice trilogy of Coloquix.

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Continued..
 
This was the locker rooms, showers and clocking in area. I really liked this little area.

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Lastly down the far end of the site is the kilns for firing the bricks. There are several long running kilns. Half the building has been ripped apart. But with the light fading it made for some nice colours here.
I wonder if the kilns were constructed of the same fire bricks as used in the refractories??

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well taken some lovely graff in there. it appears I missed quite a bit here but apparently its now the most secure place in the world! ;)
 
Mikeymutt said:
I wonder if the kilns were constructed of the same fire bricks as used in the refractories??
Click to expand...
Unlikely, building brick has different properties, it usually needs to be frostproof and have a high compressive strength (especially engineering bricks), whereas refractories are mainly about high temperature resistance. Their make-up is different, AFAIK, firebricks usually have a much higher silica content than building bricks. But – the kilns are possibly lined with refractories made here, that makes sense.

Good shots BTW, the offices are pretty wrecked but the production areas are quite photogenic and the graff is good and ever-changing.

In terms of security, hopefully they don't bring back the solar-powered CCTV towers as they were a pain in the backside if you were trying to get around the site in the early 2010's.
 
wolfism said:
Unlikely, building brick has different properties, it usually needs to be frostproof and have a high compressive strength (especially engineering bricks), whereas refractories are mainly about high temperature resistance. Their make-up is different, AFAIK, firebricks usually have a much higher silica content than building bricks. But – the kilns are possibly lined with refractories made here, that makes sense.

Good shots BTW, the offices are pretty wrecked but the production areas are quite photogenic and the graff is good and ever-changing.

In terms of security, hopefully they don't bring back the solar-powered CCTV towers as they were a pain in the backside if you were trying to get around the site in the early 2010's.
Click to expand...
The tunnel kilns were built of building bricks on the outside with an inner lining of insulation bricks with a heat-facing lining of refractory bricks. The inner lining was made of firebricks at the cooler ends of the kiln where the cars went in and came out with a lining of high alumina refractory bricks being used in the central part of the kiln. The bricks made in the Loxley valley area were made of a mouldable Fireclay from the Stannington pot clay seam and were used in the casting pits (US pouring pits) of steel works where steel flowed through the holloware into the ingot moulds in the uphill teeming process. There was also a lot of flow control products such as nozzle and stoppers made at the local works of Thos, Wragg and Thos. Marshall at Loxley (both later part of Hepworth Refractories) and J&J Dyson at Stannington. The bricks were not used to build the kilns - those kiln lining bricks would have come from works in the midlands or from Scotland or elsewhere. I worked at Dyson’s for a few years and later for GR-Stein (Hepworth Group) and my father worked at Thos. Wragg’s for over 40 years.
works at Stannington
 
Excellent, thanks very much for your first hand info about the bricks. :)

Don't want to derail Mikey's thread, but personally I'm interested because I visited GR-Stein's works at Manuel in W. Lothian quite a few times after closure, and later on visited Loxley and Stannington too, along with Newmilns in Ayrshire which was owned by Vesuvius IIRC and Diamond Refractories in Stoke. Photogenic places and a fascinating process.
 
Stannington Joe said:
The tunnel kilns were built of building bricks on the outside with an inner lining of insulation bricks with a heat-facing lining of refractory bricks. The inner lining was made of firebricks at the cooler ends of the kiln where the cars went in and came out with a lining of high alumina refractory bricks being used in the central part of the kiln. The bricks made in the Loxley valley area were made of a mouldable Fireclay from the Stannington pot clay seam and were used in the casting pits (US pouring pits) of steel works where steel flowed through the holloware into the ingot moulds in the uphill teeming process. There was also a lot of flow control products such as nozzle and stoppers made at the local works of Thos, Wragg and Thos. Marshall at Loxley (both later part of Hepworth Refractories) and J&J Dyson at Stannington. The bricks were not used to build the kilns - those kiln lining bricks would have come from works in the midlands or from Scotland or elsewhere. I worked at Dyson’s for a few years and later for GR-Stein (Hepworth Group) and my father worked at Thos. Wragg’s for over 40 years.
Click to expand...
 
wolfism said:
Excellent, thanks very much for your first hand info about the bricks. :)

Don't want to derail Mikey's thread, but personally I'm interested because I visited GR-Stein's works at Manuel in W. Lothian quite a few times after closure, and later on visited Loxley and Stannington too, along with Newmilns in Ayrshire which was owned by Vesuvius IIRC and Diamond Refractories in Stoke. Photogenic places and a fascinating process.
Click to expand...
i know the industry very well. My grandfather worked at Dyson’s as a blacksmith and is on some of the works photos of 1935. My father worked as a hand moulder at Wragg’s from 1931 until he died. I worked at Dyson’s Stannington on the shop floor and in the quality assurance department. I worked at GR-Stein for 8 years in their contacts / project department. I visited most of the GR-S works - Worksop, Bawtry, Ambergate, both works at Deepcar plus the Scottish works at Manuel, Castlecary and Glenboig as part of my job plus visiting steelworks and other refractory using industries like cement works and foundries and aluminium plants - even Ford at Dagenham when they had a blast furnace! I have catalogues from all the local Sheffield area firms and a lot of photos. I also have a small collection of refractory bricks.
 
Ganister was never used to make bricks in the Loxley valley or Stannington areas. There were high quality ganister deposits of ‘Sheffield blue best’ in the area but this was ground up and mixed with water to make ‘compo’ or ‘composition’. Compo mixture was used as a monolithic lining to line furnaces were it was unsuitable to use silica bricks because of poor access or the need to cut bricks (expensive) to get around orifices or pipework etc.

Ganister was used to make silica bricks in the Upper Don valley around Stocksbridge, Deepcar and Oughtibridge. The earliest works were Bramall’s Birtin and Caledonian works at Worrall. They were closed by 1928. All the works are closed now. Silica bricks are still used but are imported from Germany and Belgium and elsewhere. Casting pit (pouring pit) bricks are rarely used as most steelworks use continuous casting but some are imported from India and China and elsewhere, Charles Bramall is credited by many with developing the ganister crushing mill in the 1850s that helped kickstart the local refractory industry and service the newly drooped Bessemer furnaces that were invented in 1856 and built in Sheffield soon after.
 
Stannington Joe said:
The tunnel kilns were built of building bricks on the outside with an inner lining of insulation bricks with a heat-facing lining of refractory bricks. The inner lining was made of firebricks at the cooler ends of the kiln where the cars went in and came out with a lining of high alumina refractory bricks being used in the central part of the kiln. The bricks made in the Loxley valley area were made of a mouldable Fireclay from the Stannington pot clay seam and were used in the casting pits (US pouring pits) of steel works where steel flowed through the holloware into the ingot moulds in the uphill teeming process. There was also a lot of flow control products such as nozzle and stoppers made at the local works of Thos, Wragg and Thos. Marshall at Loxley (both later part of Hepworth Refractories) and J&J Dyson at Stannington. The bricks were not used to build the kilns - those kiln lining bricks would have come from works in the midlands or from Scotland or elsewhere. I worked at Dyson’s for a few years and later for GR-Stein (Hepworth Group) and my father worked at Thos. Wragg’s for over 40 years.
works at Stannington
Click to expand...
Did you ever go down Top Cabin mine in the valleyside above the factories Joe?
 
HughieD said:
Did you ever go down Top Cabin mine in the valleyside above the factories Joe?
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No. I’ve been to the mouth of Marshall’s mine further up the valley. As a youngster I went inside Dyson’s mine at Griff Works, Stannington and in all 3 of Matt Furness’s mines - 2 near the Robin Hood and one that was deep into Acorn wood. I also went down a drift mine - long closed - at Platts Farm near Ughill.

When I used to go down to Tommy Wragg’s works (nickname ‘Old Wheel’) to see my dad I usually went into the works itself. I wasn’t particularly interested in the mines - they were just seen as sources of the clay. My dad worked in the Central Plant where the hand-made special shapes such as nozzles and stoppers and bigger items like Rod covers were made and fired in the bee-hive kilns. I also went in to the old East Plant - a tunnel kiln plant where they made and fired runners, guides and trumpets and thin-walled items. The West Plant was a very automated tunnel kiln plant and was the most modern in the industry when it was opened in 1970 - the last expansion in the industry.

I left the industry in 1983 but got interested again recently. I’m still in touch with people who worked down Wragg’s Ughill mine and I’m in touch with people who worked at all 3 local works as well as people who worked at Dyson’s at Totley and Millhouses works - both ex-Pickford Holland (PH) plants.

I read your 5-part series with interest. I met Ray Battye (of Forgotten mines fame) a couple of times and went to one of his talks and he’s the man to talk to about ganister.

There was a very big ganister opencast quarry at High Matlock Road, Stannington - operated by Siddons Bros. - there’s no mention of it in Ray Battye’s book and I’ve never seen any photos of it but it was the biggest quarry in the area. I lived within 100 yards of it for years and never took a photo. D’oh!
 
Stannington Joe said:
No. I’ve been to the mouth of Marshall’s mine further up the valley. As a youngster I went inside Dyson’s mine at Griff Works, Stannington and in all 3 of Matt Furness’s mines - 2 near the Robin Hood and one that was deep into Acorn wood. I also went down a drift mine - long closed - at Platts Farm near Ughill.

When I used to go down to Tommy Wragg’s works (nickname ‘Old Wheel’) to see my dad I usually went into the works itself. I wasn’t particularly interested in the mines - they were just seen as sources of the clay. My dad worked in the Central Plant where the hand-made special shapes such as nozzles and stoppers and bigger items like Rod covers were made and fired in the bee-hive kilns. I also went in to the old East Plant - a tunnel kiln plant where they made and fired runners, guides and trumpets and thin-walled items. The West Plant was a very automated tunnel kiln plant and was the most modern in the industry when it was opened in 1970 - the last expansion in the industry.

I left the industry in 1983 but got interested again recently. I’m still in touch with people who worked down Wragg’s Ughill mine and I’m in touch with people who worked at all 3 local works as well as people who worked at Dyson’s at Totley and Millhouses works - both ex-Pickford Holland (PH) plants.

I read your 5-part series with interest. I met Ray Battye (of Forgotten mines fame) a couple of times and went to one of his talks and he’s the man to talk to about ganister.

There was a very big ganister opencast quarry at High Matlock Road, Stannington - operated by Siddons Bros. - there’s no mention of it in Ray Battye’s book and I’ve never seen any photos of it but it was the biggest quarry in the area. I lived within 100 yards of it for years and never took a photo. D’oh!
Click to expand...
If you want to know more about the refractory industry then a good place to start is Mark Cranston’s website called ‘Scottish Brick History’. There’s a bit about the Sheffield area but lots about the industry in general and Scottish works in particular. See www.scottishbrickhistory.co.uk
 
Stannington Joe said:
If you want to know more about the refractory industry then a good place to start is Mark Cranston’s website called ‘Scottish Brick History’. There’s a bit about the Sheffield area but lots about the industry in general and Scottish works in particular. See www.scottishbrickhistory.co.uk
Click to expand...
If anyone is visiting the site for an explore then if you visit the big shed at the western (Bradfield) end that was the main Carblox Ltd. shed take a look at the floor. Most of the factory floors are concrete as you would expect but the Carblox floor is different, Carblox - as the name suggests - made carbon blocks.

The blocks were mainly used to make the hearth pad in the base (bosh) of a blast furnace. The hearth pad were made up of a many carbon blocks combined in something like a three-dimensional circular jigsaw - could be as much as 10 metres diameter and 5 or more metres high. All the blocks were made and then precision ground at Carblox to mm accuracy and then the blocks were marked with code numbers and assembled on the factory floor. The concrete floor was covered by a rubberized layer to prevent damage to the lowermost base course of the hearth assembly.

Once the assembly was completed and inspected by QA people and usually inspectors from the customer or their agent and passed then the hearth assembly was disassembled, packed and readied for shipping. The hearths were shipped to customers world-wide as indeed were the casting pit refractories made at the Thos. Marshall sister plant and at nearby Thos Wraggs works and Dyson’s woks at Stannington.
 
Some of that urban art is superb and it looks very familiar to me. I suspect some of it is the same gadgy who did stuff in the Yorkshire Waterworks some years ago. There's a lot around Sheffield with that style and he's a Sheffield based artist. Like it a lot.
 

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