- Joined
- Aug 25, 2013
- Messages
- 43
- Reaction score
- 9
- Points
- 8
Thamesteel
Visited with Chaos and non member Markymark
History
Thamesteel, in Sheerness Kent was a steel foundry until January 2012. The owners of the plant went into administration and workers came to work to be told that they no longer had a job. Nothing has happened since that day, everything lays exactly as it was, just with a layer of dust covering every last bit of history which was left behind. Another victim of Britain's lack of support for industry.
Former owners the Al-Tuwairqi Group (ATG) took it back over in June, but since then there has been no news on what will happen to it except that it could cost up to £30million to decontaminate the land.
Members of Community Union, which represents the workers, even wrote an open letter to ATG chairman Dr Hilal Al-Tuwairqi asking what his intentions are for the site, but he failed to respond. Rumours about other takeovers have been quashed and numerous meetings at various government departments have taken place, but still no one knows what is happening.
A legal dispute about ownership of the assets is ongoing between Peel Land and Property, which owns the site, and ATG - but it is unclear when this will be resolved.
There are still around 250 outstanding unfair dismissal claims filed by Community on behalf of the staff who lost their jobs.
The explore
Back in January when we decided to crack this it was cold....bitterly cold, we all had snotty noses and weren't really up for it. A disgustingly early 2am start was in order so that we used the cover of darkness to our advantage to gain access. We'd had a decent heads up from an outside source and after a miserable 3hr drive and disappointing McDonalds breakfast we did a quick driving recce of the fence. We decided to park up out of sight and geared up, we took a walk along the fence line and eventually found a way in, the secca hut was close by so we observed the hut and saw a high vis exit then moments later walk back in, it was now or never so we scrambled across a bit of open ground and made our way over to the mammoth site.
Once in we headed at speed for the main buildings to get out of the ice cold wind, with it still being dark we cautiously made are way around and eventually managed to navigate ourselves to small office/workshop where we lay low until the sun came up, It was black as a witches tit in there. The sun slowly made appearance piercing through holes and windows in the roof slowly warming our chilled bones, the morning sun illuminating the epic size of the explore we had came for.
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Due to the nature of the closure it seemd it was simple case of 'down tools'
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Little bit of engine porn to finish off
Thanks for looking
Visited with Chaos and non member Markymark
History
Thamesteel, in Sheerness Kent was a steel foundry until January 2012. The owners of the plant went into administration and workers came to work to be told that they no longer had a job. Nothing has happened since that day, everything lays exactly as it was, just with a layer of dust covering every last bit of history which was left behind. Another victim of Britain's lack of support for industry.
Former owners the Al-Tuwairqi Group (ATG) took it back over in June, but since then there has been no news on what will happen to it except that it could cost up to £30million to decontaminate the land.
Members of Community Union, which represents the workers, even wrote an open letter to ATG chairman Dr Hilal Al-Tuwairqi asking what his intentions are for the site, but he failed to respond. Rumours about other takeovers have been quashed and numerous meetings at various government departments have taken place, but still no one knows what is happening.
A legal dispute about ownership of the assets is ongoing between Peel Land and Property, which owns the site, and ATG - but it is unclear when this will be resolved.
There are still around 250 outstanding unfair dismissal claims filed by Community on behalf of the staff who lost their jobs.
The explore
Back in January when we decided to crack this it was cold....bitterly cold, we all had snotty noses and weren't really up for it. A disgustingly early 2am start was in order so that we used the cover of darkness to our advantage to gain access. We'd had a decent heads up from an outside source and after a miserable 3hr drive and disappointing McDonalds breakfast we did a quick driving recce of the fence. We decided to park up out of sight and geared up, we took a walk along the fence line and eventually found a way in, the secca hut was close by so we observed the hut and saw a high vis exit then moments later walk back in, it was now or never so we scrambled across a bit of open ground and made our way over to the mammoth site.
Once in we headed at speed for the main buildings to get out of the ice cold wind, with it still being dark we cautiously made are way around and eventually managed to navigate ourselves to small office/workshop where we lay low until the sun came up, It was black as a witches tit in there. The sun slowly made appearance piercing through holes and windows in the roof slowly warming our chilled bones, the morning sun illuminating the epic size of the explore we had came for.
1.
2.
Due to the nature of the closure it seemd it was simple case of 'down tools'
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
Little bit of engine porn to finish off
Thanks for looking
