Dorma Group ltd
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Dorma was founded in 1841 by the Roberts brothers from Manchester. With the intentions of producing the finest quality fabrics in the world.
In 1920 the Dorma brand was created and for the first time bed linen was available pre-packaged straight from the manufacturer to the consumer.
From this point on Dorma dominated the market in bed linen and was the first company to produce printed bed sheets in the 1960s.
The company was also the first to mass produce quilt covers and invented the revolutionary easy care cotton products.
Dorma`s first factory was the old Sykes Paper Mill built in the 1800s by John Sykes. Which was later renamed to the Forge Bleach Works.
The Site spans across 34 acres in total with 8 acres beeing occupied by buildings and various mixing tanks and offices. The site also includes its own mini resevoir which was used in the production of dying the fabrics.
Sadly Dorma closed its operations down at the Forge Bleach Works in 2003. Selling the site to Kaleidoscope Coluration ltd. The site remained open until 2005 when Kaleidoscope went into administration and left the tax payer to foot the bill for its 100 staff.
When you approach Dorma you have no idea of just how big it is, as the majority of the buildings are obscured from view. Its only when you approach the boiler house you start realise the scale of the site.
Once past the main gates the road bares to the left taking you past the main factory itself. Facing the main factory are the staff canteen, first aid station, settling tanks and boiler house house which supplied the entire factory with power.
Whilst researching Dorma`s history we did stumble upon an interesting fact about the site.
When it was originally Sykes Paper Mill.
From historical records it states that The Sykes Paper Mill was the first mill in Derbyshire to provide its staff with a proper canteen.
Since Kaleidoscope went into administration virtually all the machinery was removed from the factory, as we found out when we explored here.
Despite the lack of machinery the factory was very photogenic in parts and still had enough paper work scattered around to keep us engrossed for hours.
In 2008 we returned to Dorma whilst in the area and sadly the site had deteriorated. As of mid 2009 demolition began and now the site is demolished.
