Akzo Nobel.

Akzo Nobel was formed in 1994 after the aquisition of Nobel Industries ltd. but the companys history can be traced right back to 1777 in Denmark with one of the founding companys, Sadolin.

In 1792 the group was expanded with the additions of the Bemberg company from Germany and Sikkens from the Netherlands, to form a conglomerate of all the companies, Alfred Noble himself also played a great part in the history of the group.

Akzo was formed in 1968 but when merged with Nobel in 1994 it became Akzo Nobel.

Akzo Nobel are world leaders in the fields of surface chemistry, plastics, base chemicals and paper manufacturing.

The site in Rochdale sits upon a 200 year old coal mine which became Cloughfield Oil Works in 1889 and changed over to Armour Hess in the 1930`s till sometime in 1974.

So far we haven`t been able to find out when Akzo Nobel took over the site but in one of the research and development labs there was a plaque indicating that the building was opened in 1980 by DR. IM. M. W. Geerlings from the Akzo board of directors.

The Rochdale site finally closed down in 2004 with the loss of over 70 jobs, but whilst exploring we did come across various pieces of paper work and internal memo`s dating back to december 2006 which would indicate the site did remain open till this time in some capacity.

Since the sites closure, planning for 260 residential houses was made but then scrapped but now developers Woodford Land have purchased the site with plans to build 165 houses on there.

This is currently on hold while surveys are carried out to determine the extent of the contamination of the land there.

Visited with The New Mendoza and DCG, at first glance the site doesnt look that big but this doesnt help with the fact that half of its already been demolished.

The warehouses and power stations still remain so far as well as the office block and research and development labs, inside is unfortunatley well and truly smashed to pieces and virtually every roof tile is missing where copper thieves have ripped out the internal wiring.

Having said that it was an enjoyable explore despite the vandalism and general appearance as well as avoiding the live on site security.