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Unity Works, Vittoria St

mikejee

mikejee

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Staff member
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Should add for the benefit of Lyn, that these photos were taken in February and since then all possible entrances have been boarded up
 
wow excellent photos of days past mike...i can almost smell the atmosphere in there....oh..are you insinuating that i would dare to take a peek inside myself?? of course you are and of course i would but its been done so job done:) and thanks to sjayaaa for taking the photos

lyn
 
Grim looking places. The accumulated dirt and grime must have made it an unhealthy workplace I should think. Interesting nonetheless.
 
Excellent photos Mike, thanks for posting them. I hope that all of those fly presses and jigs find a home and not a scrap yard.
 
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I was so pleased to see all your photos of Unity Works.
As a 15year old in 1960 I began my working life at Unity Works as an apprentice toolmaker for £5 2s 3d per week!
I worked on the top floor, just me an Arthur Nash the toolmaker, making press tools, in a small workshop. Three lathes, a shaper and workbench!
I only worked there until 1962, leaving to get away from the Victorian conditions and methods.
Your photos have really captured the atmosphere exactly I left them, as I walked out the door nearly 56 years ago!
Many thanks.
Bill Alder
 
When you analyse some of the heavy stamps in the workshop I wonder if they were used in presses to knock out saucepans or cooking pots of some description. I recall objects like that from the film Schindlers List
 
That is amazing! All that machinery still sitting there...fly presses, which were the mainstay of the stamping industry. I would love to have one of those.
Dave A
 
thanks mick i was wondering last night which building had been affected by the collapse... i have actually photographed the outside of it in the past...do hope the injuries suffered are not serious

lyn
 
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I just looked at mikejee's photos - there's something almost magnetic about scenes of industrial dereliction.
Thanks for these, Mike. In instances where a derelict factory is acquired for conversion into flats, etc., where would all the abandoned equipment, such as the presses and dies in the photos, end up? As scrap? Or would they be of some value to restorers and collectors?

G
 
Would depend on the people concerned, but guess in most cases would end up in scrapyard, unfortunately.
 
I worked in the foundry supply industry for a long time, and when in the 1980's UK foundries began closing at an ever-increasing rate, much of their equipment found new homes in countries like India and Indonesia. But this was mostly working equipment, unlike the gear in the photos of the Unity Works, so I guess you're right and the vast majority of it will end up as scrap. Just like the cars we're driving at the moment!

G
 
it said on the news that this factory was once used for munitions during ww1 just wondering if anyone could confirm this please

lyn
 
Hi,
I was amused to see that Yardley left in '62 to get away from the Victorian conditions! I was there in 83/84 as a yts trainee and little had changed. Seeing those pictures brought it all back. When I was there the company employed about eight people including a tool maker who could have been the same guy. At the time I remember thinking that it would be more profitable to close down and sell the machinery as scrap. All of the overhead drive shafts were still in place and every corner was crammed with rusting press tools. The company scraped a living by making stainless steel tea pots, brass spirit measures, cocktail shakers and pressure gauge rims.The building was cavernous and freezing cold. I left after having a finger cut to the bone while learning metal spinning using methods that would give health safety a heart attack these days!
 
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