This Victorian property was formerly Walmersley Dye Works before it was taken over by Tetrosyl in the 1960s. The company was founded within Bury and Rochdale, and the CEO shows passion to keep a part of the now international brand where it started. Tetrosyl is the biggest manufacturer and supplier of car care products in Europe and the UK's largest oil blender, reaching out to over 100 countries. 80 jobs were moved to Rochdale town centre around 2014, as the complex that mainly boasted a Victorian mill did not meet the requirements anymore for the company to stay. Planning permission had already been granted on the site before the move, which would go on to fund the construction of the new headquarters.
We visited this site with @The Excursionists a couple days prior to lockdown arrangements across the country. It was simple to access the site and everything was wide open all over, despite there being demolition ongoing at the front. First we entered a building that seemed to be much older than the rest, and had clearly been vacant for some time before the rest of the site was too. The floors in here were squishy so we didn't stay for long, before moving onto the main building.
A few more externals.
A warehouse that was long stripped. I returned by myself a couple weeks ago to film some drone footage of the property for the video, and this building had gone.
The older building we got into first.
Some last bits of stock at the end of this hall in the main manufacturing building.
I believe this room was more related to the oil blending sector of the company but I might be wrong. The black, smelly liquid across the floor was my reasoning.
Storage.
Parts seemed to be way more stripped than others. The next section we entered contained the canteen, laboratories, a few offices and first aid.
The signage was quite nice in the canteen.
From here, we moved into the technical centre, but asbestos removal was ongoing on the first three floors with the top floor being stripped anyway. The building did contain a nice marble staircase, and some offices towards the front with quite a lot inside, but I didn't take any pictures. The laboratory caravan going back on ourselves was pretty interesting though and full of chemicals and equipment, all made by Tetrosyl.
They had totally blocked the next room with these cabinets, which sucked because there was a retro computer in there.
That's all for the photographs. We left the site with it dark and headed home. Plans have been made to build 268 homes on Bevis Green Works which would involve the demolition of every building on site.
Here's the link to our video filmed at this site. We cover the building's past, present and future through cinematics and narration:
