02-05-2011, 10:42 AM
Single mass employers, outside the public sector, seem to be a thing of the past. Up until recently I had a small space in a friends workshop for storage. This was on the site of a drop forging company, amazingly still in business. At one time they employed as many as 3500 workers working a 3 shift system ! Now they have 60 ! Much of the site is like a ghost town, with much evidence of what it had once been, like a medical centre, massive canteen, union offices, stores, fitters workshops etc, all now disused and falling into decay. The most sobering of the disused areas for me is the main engineering shop, a place that was obviously once capable of making or repairing almost anything and very well equipped with lathes, mills, shapers etc, etc. Now it looks like people just walked away and left it, all the machines are rusty and covered in pigeon droppings. Scenes like that for me are very depressing, to see a place that obviously once buzzed with skilled, creative and industrious activity, just abandoned seems wrong.
Places like Mullard were more than just factories, they were small villages ! Although I wasn't around then I have this fantasy to travel back in time to experience life as it was then !
Places like Mullard were more than just factories, they were small villages ! Although I wasn't around then I have this fantasy to travel back in time to experience life as it was then !
