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I am surprised that not more of the site is protected. A friend of mine who was born in Heage tells me that during WWII in common with many industrial sites, the whole factory was camouflaged for obvious reasons. Stories also abound of certain artifacts being too big to move were just bricked up, it will be interesting to see if these stories are fact or fiction. Of course they might have been moved during the interim time.
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I know that a Messerschmitt BF109 was in there during the war, I never knew of it being moved, so we'll see what appears.

My source also confirms that, along with a complete Spitfire. They were apparently bricked up in bays, being too big and cumbersome to move. The Messerschmitt was there to be checked out for its construction.

I will ask lots of questions trow.... be amazing if we found something good! 🙂

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Do you know where the bays were? I'm guessing the old furnace bank. There's nothing like that inside the works itself, unless the planes are under where the houses now are.

It would be interesting sometime, to enquire if the Birmingham Industrial Museum still has the 1964 colour film that Frank Nixon mentions as having deposited there. Okay it's of Codnor, but still interesting to view.

No one seems to know J4M35... the only other bays could be under Butterley Hill which would be my guess given the elevation of the road... when I get a moment today I'll do some serious prying :devil:

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ive been inerested in the butterley works postings . my girlfriends dad tells me that mine shafts around heage were used to dispose of merlin engines after the war .

Not heard that one but know for a fact that several went into the old Crich quarries... seen a cam shaft with full RR serial number stampings found there not too many years ago... displayed at a friends house in his lounge on a plinth!!

No sign of the German plane yet at Butterley! Nor had the former site manager of 30 years ever heard of the story of it being stuck away, as far as he knew it was hung on a wall and was just removed after ww2.

I have full site access now having explained I am used to scrapping / industrial sites and having agreed to do some photography for the Demolition Co in return, The company in question to their credit have been fantastic, and its a very safe well run operation with top processing machines.

I ended up on site yesterday with the former site manager and the AVBC buildings person... she is totally on our side re the stone buildings but it appears we need to convince English Heritage!!! Have started a letter to AVBC and am looking at other routes to get the sites profile raised in the public eye.... Sougher I will be in touch... 😉

Back next week (Mon I think) for a trip around the old works and some photography which thus far is untouched and has all its original features.

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exellent . i,ll pass that information on . i know two people who visited captured /shot down german planes in this area during the war . one in alfreton , and one in belper . so i could imagine how butterley works would aquire one . on a different tack , i wonder if there will be any sign of access to the underground wharf on the canal ? ive read varying accounts of where the shafts would be . one that they were on the area above the blast furnace ( in which case theyre now part of the housing developement ) the other , that they were in front of it . i think the shafts are blocked part way up , so its possible they were then backfilled level with the yard

Both shafts are fully capped and buried to east of top of the furnace bank, though 3rd shaft shown on a map in works yard but this now under concrete cap and filled... no sign however where it came out in tunnel. Loading platform still there at the wide hole and accessible from tunnel mouth.... however given tunnel condition when last visited .... 😮 ... :surrender:

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the mine workings i mentioned used for the disposal of rolls royce engines in heage were called the footrills , shallow adit workings . do you happen to know if the capping of the top two shafts was during the construction of the first batch of houses ? the site would have made for an interesting time team program if theyd got in at the start .

You were quite right originally... the shafts were filled partway I'm told... but they have been properly capped due to the housing... I'll dig out the plan showing position... I believe they are in someones back garden!!

Where was Heage footrill?? Bond Lane pit is still there (Heage Colliery) and nothing was thrown down them.

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i think they were towards the far laund area . i,ll check with my girlfriends dad . he,s lived in the belper / heage area all his life . i think tenter lane is named after miners who worked the footrills

thanks , it would be good to be able to the place position of the wharf on a map

On it now!

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i just talked to steuart about the spitfire engines . he said a driver leaving the rolls royce works in a lorry was heading for buckland hollow , to the right of were the excavator pub is ,coming from heage , to footrills to dump the engines . it was talked about around the works at the time too . they would have been huge crates , as it was possible to park an austin 7 inside one . whether there was a crane waiting or if they were taken down by tub track without the crate is guesswork . back to the butterley site . there was a messerscmitt shot down by two hurricanes between makeny and millford . maybe this was the one ending up at the works

Thats fascinating... I now know where you mean... i may have the OS with those workings on.

Re the tunnel shaft map.. got it but need to copy and upload.

Regards

ICLOK

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Hello Adrian, hope you are well... so many believe but this theory was based on Samuel Smiles comments in his book 'The life of George Stephenson' and comments by Clement Stretton later that the word Tramway was coined from Outram's name.
this has subsequently been rejected as the words Dram and Tram were found to have been derived from Teutonic words meaning a beam of wood hence traam in the Norse Scandinavian.
The word tram is considered by Charles E Lee in his Evolution of Railways 1944 to have become associated with transport "as the name for a quadrilateral frame on which baskets of coal were carried" first brobably as bearers and later as sledges then sledges with wheels.
The words Trammys and tram were in use in the 16th century in mining well before Outram.

No sign of any plates yet but I have them looking.... strangely 2 more have just been found in Golden Valley nearby under a hedge (prob in use as fence strengtheners).

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This is very interesting, may it be possible to access the shafts from inside the furnace itself?

hello iclok.i live local to butterley works in swanwick. 🙂 🙂 🙂 ive been taking some photos of the site because to locals its a landmark,the place,the sheds,the amazing history,the old furnaces,and i want to keep a record of what will soon be gone.i didnt know what had happened to butterley after the final redundancies and have wondered.i have read the forum and obviously found out wellman booth bought all the debt/name etc.i cant believe the sheds and the site is being torn down,its really sad.i collered a couple of the cawarden demolition blokes the other day and they reckon the stone buildings on butterley corner are being saved,along with the orginal blasts.my grandad is 91 and knows loads about butterley.he built the red brick building on the main road,under the 'butterley 1790'sign just after the war when he worked for a local building firm.he's always told me about the camo being painted on the buildings during the war,infact you can still see it on the ones on butterley corner.it was a munitions factory during the war aswell.i remember as a kid going into my mum and dads bed early in the morning,and at 7am the 'butterley blower' as we called it,went off alerting the workforce of the morning shift starting.its such a shame that so much history is coming to an end.about 20 years ago i went with my dad to an open day at butterley taking in a tour of the entire site.ive got vivid memories of that day,i couldnt belive the size of the place,i was fascinated by the size of the sheds and cranes,and the stockyard where the new houses are now was massive.i hope they've piled the stockyard deep where the houses are,alot was backfilled and had to have big groundworks done for the houses,i wouldnt fancy living in one of them,i bet they will get subsidence in years to come! Hopefully i will see my grandad tomorrow and will ask him if he knows anything about the possibilty of those planes being taken there during the war,although he was away fighting,and if there is any more tantilising historical stories about the site.keep up the good work iclok.

The Plate rails you mention,we called them Bridge Rails in the Small mines in South Wales,there were Cast Iron Partins to match these rails,including the curves for joining Partin Box back to the main road.