Tales of the Urban Explorer: T&D Industries
I have to credit @goblinknackers for discovering T&D Industries. During my Bradford visit in October 2019, he sprang this on me having simply driven past it following this up with some nosiness.
A little research tells me that the company was over 100 years old when it folded.
Just when that was I don't know, but like many of these industrial and manufacturing companies, it had at least one rescue in 2000.
As our usual practices dictate, we parked not so close to our target and started snooping around. There was little need as it was Sunday and almost deserted.
The outside curved building had some lovely red foliage growing all over it, as we looked around for an access point passing the now jungle-like old entrance.
There was little need as @goblinknackers’ preliminary scouting work had already revealed one.
He’s really starting to attain his grades and will be going for ‘A’ levels soon in Urban Exploration.
Inside was dark but no match for the huge light I had brought along, while @goblinknackers now has a mining hat complete with strong light affixed.
We left the stairs until later, better to start with the ground floor.
Should we both jump down this big hole, what is there to be seen down a murky fissure? On contemplation, we both decided to not bother.
Some parts of the building had suffered from a collapsed roof. From here daylight poured in and added a little greenery to our view.
Is this a quick escape route, for those who don’t mind nails in their feet?
Sealed Ethernet cables, they were not the pen and paper office types, or were they?
VHS tapes and Bridget Jones; I guess working here may have been a little dull at times and you do need some entertainment to get you through the doldrums.
Like many places, the homeless have been here, though being outside may be preferable to the creepiness you would need to ensure to stay a night here.
It was old and dirty, they do tend to abandon their sleeping bags and get more from somewhere else.
The safe would not open, once again our attempts at becoming rich thwarted. These steps we did descend but found nothing of interest besides water, sludge and mud.
We started up the shadowy staircase looking for anything that may have been left behind.
A box of blank stationery lurked in a corner and someone had been flinging it around the place.
Plenty of written correspondence from the mid-'90s was strewn around. ‘S.Turner’ seemed to like writing by hand.
Surely they had computers and printers by 1994? The workplaces I was in during those times no longer wrote essays like this.
This notice is from 2001, so they survived at least a year when bailed out in 2000.
This is what it looks like with no lighting. The holes in the roof don’t make much of an impression.
Regular torches don’t penetrate this kind of darkness, phone torches the same. If you don’t bring the correct equipment, you can forget your photography.
We spent around 30 minutes in T&D Industries. It wasn’t the most exciting explore, but relatively safe with creepiness levels being not too high.
I couldn’t help but notice the old parking charge notice, £90 and cameras’ are present. It's hardly in the city centre.
I do wonder what became of T&D Industries. Like many of these 100 yeas companies, they become time trapped in their business ethics, don't evolve and then start accumulating debt.
It was once a lovely old building and could be again. Just need's a little roofing work, with complete replacements in some areas.
If you found this article so invigorating that you are now a positively googly-eyed, drooling lunatic with dripping saliva or even if you liked it just a bit, then please upvote, comment, resteem, engage me or all of these things.
Congratulations, Your Post Has Been Added To The Steemit Worldmap!
Author link: http://steemitworldmap.com?author=slobberchops
Post link: http://steemitworldmap.com?post=tales-of-the-urban-explorer-t-and-d-industries
Want to have your post on the map too?
Doesn't look like it's been as popular with the graffiti mob as some of your other locations. Is it out of the way? We've lost so much industry in this country. I bet some people worked there for decades.
It's off the radar. Often these types are great as they are undiscovered. I don't go to any lengths to inform others where they are or how to get in. They need to do their own research.
It was founded around 1910, a lot has happened.. 2 wars, and at least some of the building is the original.
There are people where I work who have clocked up 30 years or more. The company is nervous about the effects of Brexit, but this place you went obviously went under long before that. I'd better not get into another political rant. I need a break from that sometimes.
Twitter link: https://twitter.com/BrynRogers/status/1219559930853720065
This post has been manually curated by The PhotoStream team: The Photography Tribe!
Bridget Jones, lol. Things just have been really hard.
I am baffled too, who would willingly write so much by hand even then?!
There was more than this, I didn't want to post all I found.. I mean many more sheets all by the same bloke.
Maybe it's some inscrutable urban poetry from after the closure. An urbexer like yourself that just leaves sheaves of handwritten nonsense at sites. :0)
It seems the company was finally wound up at the beginning of 2001...
They are known in legal circles as a a UK insolvency law test case...
I wonder what happened to the directors and how many are still around...
They were originally known as Tanks and Drums Limited - a much groovier name.
Re T&D Industries plc
Re T&D Industries plc [2000] BCC 956 is a UK insolvency law case, concerning the policy of administration of a company in financial distress. It held that administrators have the clear power to deal with the company's property as is necessary if under the pressure of time before there is a creditors' meeting.
I did see the UK insolvency law case but as it wrapped up in 1999, was unsure if it was the same company. How did they keep going for 2 more years?
I should hire you to do my research lol!!
Digging up history is always interesting. And with the power of the internet it is much easier than it used to be - no more trudging off to archives and records offices.
So it's been empty for at least 18 years. Many places are wrecks after this amount of time. It's done well compared to many others I have seen.
I guess it depends on state of repair, security and the type of area it is in.
This is just a great exploration!
I'm guessing the unused cable and the written reports are related and possibly related to the business failing...
There's talk of increasing prices and design flaws in those documents, but they are from 1994. Was this the start of the fall?
The ivy all over that building is pretty awesome. You need to start taking a walking stick with you so you can test the floor before you take steps. That way you don't need to worry about falling through. Maybe you can find one with a spot light attachment :)
One day I'm going to fall to my death, and there will be no more posts. I get visions of it happening, they are not pleasant.
Better make sure @bingbabe knows how to access your account so she can let us all know! :P
She has no idea, not interested in the least :(
Congratulations @slobberchops! Your post made the TravelFeed team happy so we have sent you our big smile. Keep up the good job. 😃
Feedback
Based on your post, we have the following feedback for you:
Thanks for using TravelFeed!
@worldcapture (TravelFeed team)
PS: You can now search for your travels on-the-go with our Android App. Download it on Google Play
Hi, @slobberchops!
You just got a 11.85% upvote from SteemPlus!
To get higher upvotes, earn more SteemPlus Points (SPP). On your Steemit wallet, check your SPP balance and click on "How to earn SPP?" to find out all the ways to earn.
If you're not using SteemPlus yet, please check our last posts in here to see the many ways in which SteemPlus can improve your Steem experience on Steemit and Busy.
Its such a pretty building it almost makes me wanna visit, though probably not the inside. Gobbie did well finding it. And say hi to him from me!
I'll try, though we rarely see each other now.
I think you are an explorer at heart see...?
Hiya, @LivingUKTaiwan here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made into our Honorable Mentions in Daily Travel Digest #746.
Your post has been manually curated by the @steemitworldmap team and got an upvote from @blocktrades to support your work. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting us so we can keep the project going!
Become part of the Haveyoubeenhere community:
The colors are really cool. Do you bring a LED panel?
Hi @slobberchops!
Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your UA account score is currently 4.588 which ranks you at #1934 across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has not changed in the last three days.
In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 129 contributions, your post is ranked at #53.
Evaluation of your UA score:
Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server
Love it, love the hand written reports lol, life before the www, do we yearn for the good old days as I tap merrily away on my iPad? Hmmmmmm
This one was way off the radar, @goblinknackers found it by driving around. Bradford is a mecca for us, every other building is smashed up and derelict.