In October I showed you photos of the demolition work at the old ABC Wax dye works.
This is a more recent view from the café in Morrisons supermarket across the motorway.
Ashton Brothers built Newton Bank Printworks in Hyde in the early 1800s. In 1899 F.W.Ashton became part of the Calico Printers association (CPA). In 1908 the first wax prints (production Batiks using handblock) were produced. In 1959, CPA purchased the Swiss trading company A.Brunnschweiler, and in 1970 that became the company name replacing F.W.Ashton.
A.Brunnschweiler & Co was soon abbreviated to ABC which later became the brand name of its wax prints in West Africa. ABC was purchased by the Cha group in 1992. In 2005, production of the standard ABC product was transferred to another group factory in Ghana called Akosombo Textiles Ltd (ATL)
All production ceased at Newton bank printworks in December 2007 and all the necessary machinery was transferred to ATL in Ghana. The site was then decommissioned and cleaned up prior to demolition in 2014.
A full record of the demolition with photos and videos can be found on the Demolition of ABCWAX blog created by site manager David Bradley.
A contribution to Skywatch Friday.
Please visit Best of Hyde Daily Photo 2014 and vote for your favourites. Deadline for voting is 12 noon GMT on Monday 29th December 2014.
Such a very big site. What will go there now?
ReplyDeleteThe work looks quite methodical.
ReplyDeleteDo you know what they are going to build on it? Looks like a rather big job..
ReplyDeletealmost certainly housing - that is what usually happens with these sites
DeleteGutted, Had some good times there.
ReplyDeleteSad to see the print works as gone..It was my first job as a Apprentice Painter and Decorator..We painted the offices .can remember working off the roof at the front of the works.People had scratched their names and dates into the slates..we did the same..seems so long ago now.
ReplyDelete