Oilite Bearings

At this time Oilite was a main competitor to Bowman International Ltd. A small company that was founded in 1972 as a marketing and design company for bearings. In 1984 Bowman expanded and began production of bearings itself. The company became increasingly successful and was in direct competition with Oilite for many years.

Oilite on the other hand wasnt proving as succsseful as Bowman and in 2008 Bowman aquired the assetts to Oilite as it went into administration. Consequently Oilites Ipswich bearing factory was closed indefinatley.

Since Oilites absence of the Ipswich site the entire facility has been derelict and suffered greatly to vandalism and theft.

As expected with most industrial sites they are a magnet to coper thieves and they dont care what they do to a site in order to steal the copper. Oilite is no exception to that, the offices have had the ceilings ripped down in order to steal cable and the same is so of the factory itself.

Despite the damage though the site is still in relativley good condition albeit a bit stripped but that doesnt really come as a surprise.

The site itself is huge and has a vast array of buildings and foundrys. Huge empty voids of where machinery used to sit now great you in the main foundry sections but there is one section that is very unique and what really make this site worth seeing.

Hidden away on the upper floors of one of the buildings lyes a virtually intact laboratory with everything still in situ. Its like some mad professors lab. Test tubes, viles, chemicals, testing equipment, machinery you name it its there.

A most unexpected find but very welcome, its worth going just to see the lab itself, it really is stunning!