It would appear any re-use of the old overhead cranes in the old works have bitten the dust... metal thieves nicked the conductor rails along the gantries... it had been proposed by Promanex to use the shop for a while. Apparently they did this in the dark using hand tools and without ladders or ropes some 25 feet up... lets hope next time someone hears something..... say like the thump of a Pikey landing hard :devil:

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I can remember when i worked for Hanson and someone smashed the forktruck mast into the conductor rails,it cost £4000 to replace about 4 metres of it! So im thinking it will be a no-no down at butterley then...... 😠

Just got the Ripley & Heanor,the article has made Page 2 in there aswell!! 😉

I've just put some more photo's in the album that were taken today - a very sad sight - the famous sign is now gone 😢

Ian 1970 your pics are great,better than mine from friday..abit better light for photography today.I was just thinking i might try and get hold of a couple of bricks from the offices (in the photos,beneath the steel wall thats still standing) when they pull them down-it would be great to give them to my grandad and say 'the last time you handled these was 63 years ago!' like i say in previous posts he helped build them after the war.I know i keep going on about it but i feel proud that he played a part in the history of Butterley.He's got a very laid back attitude about the situation though,he doesnt really think like us lot on the forum do,he's got a 'what goes up must come down' attitude to it all! 😉

If you can get some that would be great - could you let me have one? 😉

Yes Definitely! I know the bricks from the demolished compressor house were Riddings* double pressed,i wonder if they will be the same? Hopefully i will be able to get hold of some anyway,will let you know either way. 🙂

*Correction,they were Waingroves double pressed.

Ooo, if you get some an you let me know? I don't mind the odd brick to clutter up my parent's garden 🙂

Will try.Not had time yet to ask.

EVERYBODY-SHORT NOTICE! BUTTERLEY FEATURE ON BBC1 LOCAL NEWS IN NEXT HALF HOUR!!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

Just saw it, it was alreet 🙂

Has anybody seen the BBC Derby website,there is a overhead photo of Butterley.Iam curious as to when it was taken,it looks like a very busy site,perhaps a good few years ago now.You can clearly see the old foundry,and shop 9 has not got its extension.There are also numerous other buildings in the stockyard area where the new houses are now,some of which must have been demolished long ago,i certainly dont remember them,you can see buildings alongside the coach road where the cutting was (now filled with the houses on) Can anyone identify them,and satisfy my curiosity?!

Hi Tater24 - I've seen the picture - the smoke from the bottom LH corner is from the Foundry Cupola Furnaces. If you look at the article on the foundry I scanned in it says that they changed from coke fired cupola melting to electric melting in 1981 - so this dates this picture as 1981 latest - it just shows how huge the site was. 😉

Hi Ian-thankyou! I did wonder that about the foundry with the smoke coming out.I did read the articles but didnt make that link with picture.It certainly does show how big the site was.Absolutely fascinating.I was only 6 in 1981,but even then i can remember being aware of the place,with knowing people who worked there,and i was always amazed by the size of shop 8,or the bridge yard as my dad used to say,as we drove up Butterley Hill.

Other things which may help date the photo include the fact that No.10 Shop had been built, which I understood happened when they closed Codnor Park, possibly when they did a lot of reorganisation around 1974.

Other buildings on the stock yard/top yard area are the paint shop, engineering offices, garages and erectors cabins.

I don't know enough about the foundry to describe any of those buildings.

In case you can't find them, the photos are here http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/derby/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8470000/8470702.stm 

Hi Julian - When exactly did the wagon works side of Codnor Park Works close - I know from other sources that the Forge closed in 1965 - but I can remember going round Codnor Park Wagon Works as a young lad in the early-mid 70's with my grandad after he retired as a rivetter there. He retired in 1971 so it would be around 1975/76 I guess. Also can anyone remember a Butterley open day in the 1970's - I can remember going as a young lad with my dad and Uncle - Morris Rawson who was chief structural engineer and being taken back with the scale of things even though I would only be 6 or 7 at the time 😉 :lol:

OK.. time for an update and an appeal.

Next Monday two questions will be put to the council at Ripley on the 27th, meeting starts at 7pm, one from the Cromford Canal guys and one from me, both will seek to question what has happened and also how AVBC proposes to protect whats left. Generally now there seems to be much movement behind the scenes and I believe discussions on going re scheduling with EH. My best hope is for a re-survey...
Still heard nothing back from our wonderful MP... strange given there is an election brewing! :devil:

There is a new Album on here showing site in full as at yesterday... "Going.. Going..." and a few new interiors pics and odds and sods in the "old works" album.

Regarding the Butterley Co in general there are Albums on here for the Butterley coal mines and for the Butterley Co railway. Just type in Butterley in the mine names search and they will come up. Please please if anyone has any archive pics of the these sites then please add them, it would be great if we could get the whole breadth and depth of Butterley recorded. :flowers:

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My Grandad and Dad worked at the Codnor Park Forge in the 50's, until Dad went to Bull Pit at Selston because it was better pay. When I was a kid in the early 70's we would play on the old forge site, climbing up and down what was known locally as the Bogey Steps, these were a set of steps set into the walls,to give access from top to bottom. I think the Wagon shop closed around this time. One of the Managers there was a chap by the name of Fred Leighton don't know if any body remembers him,lots of happy days then.

I've added a photo to the Crich Butterley Railway Archive.

Veeeeeery Nice indeedy! Not seen that one... great it still survives and thanks for digging it out. :thumbsup:

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http://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/50/Shelton.htm