Saint Gobain
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Saint-Gobains Staveley Works are part of the former Stanton & Staveley Ironworks.
The Staveley Works date back to the 1840s when it was originally called the Stanton Iron Company. which produced iron pipes and various other products which included coal.
In 1939 the company merged with Stewarts and Lloyds. Who then merged the pipe making side with the Staveley Iron and Chemical Company. After this time nealry all pipe work was branded with the Stanton & Staveley logo.
The firm was nationalised in 1947 then denationalised in the 1950s. It was sold to Stewarts and Lloyds in 1960 when it merged with the Stanton company.
Stanton Staveley was renationalised again in 1967, becoming part of the Tube division of British Steel.
The combined Statnton Staveley operation became Stanton PLC. At some point they also began making concrete tubes and lamp posts. During the early 1980s Stanton became part of the French Pont-a-Mouson Group and part of the French Saint-Gobain Group in 1985.
Since then Saint Gobain Pipelines took over the site and continued manufacturing right up until 2006 when they announced the works would finally close.
Since 2006 Stantons has been derelict but very much un-explorable until recently. This has only happened because the site is slowy being demolished.
Incredibly though much virtually all of the original machinery is still in situ. And in some parts you would think the site is still active due to the amount of items lefy lying around the place.
The Staveley Works are currently being demolished but with the site being so vast, many of the original buildings are still standing.
On our visit we struck lucky and found at least half of the huge 500 acre site still standing and in one piece. Some of the buildings we explored where spectacular and still had all the machinery and even former employees possesions still in situ.
Its really a shame to see this site vanish. 500 acres of Industrial heritage gone forever! That aside though this really was an impressive explore. We are just glad we got to see the place before its completely gone.
