Stevensons Amber Dye Works.

Stevensons Dye Works dates back to 1825 when James Stevenson set up the family business on Wirksworth Moor to dye and bleach fabrics, the company where originally based in Wirksworth but quickly expanded and moved to Bullbridge in 1908 where it has remained ever since.

Nearly 100 years later in 1926 the company decided to go limited and was renamed, Stevensons Dye Works ltd. Amber Dye Works.

From then on the company flourished, opening 6 local shops and in 1946 it became one of the first ever companies to dye nylon stockings.

At its peak Stevensons employed a few hundred people and had a very impressive client list, but by the 1960s the two remaining members of the Stevenson family resigned from the board of directors.

At some point after this the Quantum Clothing Group expressed an interest in Stevensons and later took it over still keeping the original name, the Quantum Clothing Group is Europes largest dyeing house and has contracts all over the world with many high profile clients.

A decline in the UK textile market and rising production costs eventually led to Stevensons closing.

On the 22 December 2006 Stevensons finished its last order and finally closed its doors for good along with the loss of a few hundred jobs.

The site is still very much active despite being stripped in some sections to almost nothing and is now occupied by two other companies, PPT Devan Chemicals and STR, Specialized Technical Resources UK ltd.

The site is set over 17 acres and is the biggest industrial site in Ambergate, and dominates the local landscape.

Myself and The New Mendoza spent well over 2 hours exploring this magnificent and unspoilt site in between dodging the CCTV and live security.

Its always a bonus being the first to explore a site but its even more of a bonus when everything is still intact and undamaged, a lot of the machinery has gone now but the computer room and workshops certainly compensated adequately for this.

In between the chemical silos lye the records room and they even have paper work still in situ of the final deliveries from the sites closure in December 2006.