ÿþ<HTML LANG=en-GB> <HEAD> <TITLE>The Derelict Miscellany :: Laporte Earths</TITLE> <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="laporte, redhill, reigate, fullers, earth, union, earths, derelict, abandoned, laboratories, patteson court, disused, works, factory, industrial, copyhold, nutfield"> <META NAME="description" CONTENT="An abandoned fuller's earth plant near Reigate with labs, social club, offices and machinery lying derelict. "> <META NAME="author" CONTENT="D. A. 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The company offices were destroyed by arson in 2011 and some tree clearance has since taken place. <br><b>Page Updated:</b> June 2011<BR> <br> A greyish, mineral-rich clay, fuller's earth is well-known for its absorbent qualities and has many uses ranging from powder cosmetics to 'mud' used for drilling oil wells. Its best known use however is as cat litter, of which millions of bags are sold every year. Most of this is now imported from the Americas but until recently, fuller's earth was quarried from the Lower Greensand strata at Woburn (Beds.), at Baulking (Oxon.) and at Redhill (Surrey). On the Redhill deposit, the most successful quarry operating at the turn of the century was the Copyhold Works of the Fuller's Earth Union Ltd, established c.1860-70. Initially supplying the woollen trade, demand later shifted to the growing chemical and commodity sector with customers in the 1920s-40s including the Southern Oil Company Ltd, British Glues and Chemicals Ltd and Price's Patent Candle Co. <br> <br> In 1954 the works, by now employing 780 men, were bought by chemical company Laporte Industries. Production was stepped up to meet increasing demand and a large factory consisting of kilns, granulators, blungers, silos and transit systems on several floors was built. A large quarry existed to the east and in the 1970s this strange landscape stood in for various alien worlds in the BBC's Doctor Who series. In the 1980s, the Copyhold site was sending loose earths and packaged cat litter around the world. By 1995, however, due to falling profits it was announced that the company would close 10% of its 100 plants. Copyhold fell victim the following year and the Laporte Group was broken up with the majority share sold to an American private equity firm trading as Rockwood Holdings Inc. After the production lines were switched off, the 119 acre pit was purchased for use as a landfill site by Biffa Waste Services and continues to take waste from across Surrey. The factory was for a while used as a waste transfer station but this too was abandoned at some time in the last four years and the site is now derelict. <center> <div id="flashContent"><font color=red><br>This gallery requires JavaScript and the Flash Player to operate. <a href="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer/">Download Flash Player here.</a>.</font><br><br></div> </center> After fire, flood and thirteen years of dereliction, Copyhold looks like something from the hellish world of some dystopian science fiction. It is dark, dirty, cold and dangerous. Thick grey dust blankets every surface, turning to mud wherever water filters through the holed roof and a baffling labyrinth of pipes and hoppers towers overhead. The cavernous spaces are filled with sound, almost as if the aging structure is muttering to itself about the iniquities of its lot. The roaring and clattering of the wind as it tears at loose sheeting and whips around corners and chimneys is strangely distorted by the tangle of machinery into a cacophony of groans, sighing, whistles and knocking. Twice I thought I heard footsteps or coughing, but on calling out received no reply. <br> <BR><center><a name="60s"></a> <U>EPILOGUE: THE FULLER'S EARTH IN THE '60S</U> <br><br></center> In September 2010, I received an email from a person I'll call D, a former Laporte employee who shared the following memories of working at the plant in the late '60s (names have been omitted by his own request): <br><BLOCKQUOTE><font size=6> </font> The Fuller's Earth (we never called it LaPorte or Nutfield) was not too efficient in 1969. It ran a huge revolving heated drum, seemed about 50 feet long, on its side, to "cook" the earth with added soda etc. I worked mostly in the sack warehouse. One day the plant was running normally when a massive artic crept down the approach road with a new drum on its bed --- and took down our telephone wires too. Managers ran out waving their arms. I went over to listen. LaPorte had ordered this new drum because they wanted to modernize the plant. Installing it would require FIRST largely demolishing the corrugated building, dismantling the old drum, lifting it out, and only then starting to install the new one.[...] The big artic was followed in by a giant crane truck, whose operator started to set it up with cables etc. The manager said "What are you doing?" The drivers both said "We are delivering this drum as ordered, so make way." Despite the manager's objections they unloaded this massive bit of kit onto the grass bank beside the road, and drove away ("We're not taking it back, it's yours") When I left six months later, the new drum was still there covered in weeds and rusting...<BR><BR> I worked alongside a nice chap who had been a quarry worker next door but had been demoted to labourer. Some quarry guys had been opening the gates on Sundays, running the excavators, and selling loads of fuller's earth for cash to various trucks --- this chap knew about it but was not in on the scam. The actual scammers were all fired and charged with theft, which they paid easily out of their jeans pocket. My mate was told "resign or work in the warehouse" as a sort of punishment. He chose the labourer's job [and] spent his days skiving, oiling his sack barrow, tipping rubbish and pebbles into the big clay mill, etc to sabotage it. <BR><BR> We shipped 1cwt paper sacks of earth, and also bulk tankers fed from two big overhead hoppers. It was used for all sorts --- makeup powder is largely fuller's earth -- also foundries use it to mix in the casting sand because it makes the sand lock together formly. Several big racehorse trainers used to buy a sack, as they believed it was the best to make a poultice or cast around an injured horse's foot! Fuller's earth has a very high surface-to-volume ratio --- which means it is very absorbent --- we could soak up a big oil spill with just one handful of the stuff, it was amazing. Probably bad for my lungs along the way but I never thought about that.<font size=5> </font><BR><BR> <font size=5> </font> I remember the "Danger - compressed air" notice because we all used to blow our overalls clean of the dust by using the air hose, risking our lives or at least lungs!<font size=5> </font> <BR><BR> <font size=5> </font> You've got me remembering back over 40 years! We had a cheeky young guy working there who was a pest to everyone, and one Friday afternoon when it was quietening down, not me but some of the crew told him they had some beer up in the sack loft; we all wore big baggy overalls at work, and this youngster was quite skinny -- well, when he got up there they held him down on the floor and NAILED his overalls, all the way round, to the plank floor --- and walked off. It was quite some time before anyone heard him shouting. Our foreman was a tough old guy, [...], but he looked after his crew. We had a loader [...] a Jamaican who was very religious and sang hymns all day. [...] Lorry drivers always helped us load sacks on, and one day a chap decided he did not want a black man working with him, and he was being quite nasty, and 'accidentally' bumped [the loader], who fell. [Supervisor] always knew what was going on, and he ordered the rest of us to UNLOAD the lorry on the spot. [Supervisor] told the driver "You're going back to your depot empty and telling them why, and I'll phone them to check." We all stood there grinning. When the firm phoned, [Supervisor] said they could get another load when that driver came back and apologized to [the loader] in public. --- quite something! Our impression of our grouchy foreman went through the roof. <br>[....]<br><br> What I mostly remember is how much your back ached after a week of sweeping warehouse floors. AND always ventilate the big forklift battery when you're leaving it on charge , or ----BANG, the cover hit the roof thirty feet up.<font size=5> </font> <BR><BR> <font size=5> </font> The only other memory that came to life since I wrote was the awful frequent job of unloading 20 tons of soda granules, in 1-cwt bags, from a delivery lorry --- the stuff burned your eyes and nose, it was horrible --- and the paper sacks ALWAYS leaked. I can't remember the actual recipe for the final fuller's earth product, but soda went into it. <font size=5> </font> </BLOCKQUOTE> I remain indebted to D for agreeing to share his reminiscences for the purposes of this website. It is only when the testimony of the people who actually worked in places like the Fuller's Earth comes to light that the history of those places can really be told. <br> <br> <center> <A HREF="index.html"> Home</A> <BR><BR> </td><td width=13></td></tr></table> </TD></TR><TR><TD bgcolor="#EEE9E9" ALIGN=CENTER> <font size=1>Derelict Miscellany. Website &amp; content Copyright D. A. Gregory 2005-Present unless stated to be otherwise.</font> </td></tr></table> </font> </body> </html>