Stone Manganese, Birkenhead Docks Wirral 03/06/10

[sloth*]

Stone Manganese Marine [SMM] was formed in 1892 in London, where they made ship propellers. They moved to Wallasey at the start of world war two.
The site is on the dock road in Wallasey, and is visible from the Wallasey tunnel tool booths.
Due to a European Union grant being given to a rival German company , manufacturing ceased on the site in 1998 with the loss of 39 jobs, the company now only offers a consultancy service.
The site consist of the office building at the front, the large warehouse and a single beam crane outside, underneath which are several large brass/bronze propellers.
A couple of these propellers have had their blades removed (by what appears to be cold cutting method, possible to save as much of the metal as possible) from the hubs for what I would guess would be preparation for movement to a scrap yard. This has had the unfortunate effect of coating all the propellers in a dust, which prevented them from being as reflective as they have been.
Access was very easy, we asked the security if we could take some photos and he said "Yes, but there isn't much left." and he even raised the barrier to allow us to drive up to the propellers.
Visited with my Biatch Minxy and Nickweb




Pregnant Minxy

[nickweb]

I'll put my pics here if no-one minds, keeping the forum tidy