Shame seeing this... I worked in the offices from 88 until 93..some great years.. The lads from the foundry Crap hat and Russ... Taught us how to drink.. Me and my great friend Lee Carroll started together straight from school. Lee rip sadly passed away very young.. But we had some fantastic times... I was stuck in the offices on the shop floor. Think on 10 bay. With Harry and Lorna.. Lorna, was sound and super chilled was my boss.. .i Had to be there everyday at 7am..i was on the 5.45 am 80 bus from Moston Ben Brierley unpo Newton heath. Get off the stop passed Sharps, bacon butty then the walk down to the shop floor... Finished at 4.30. Straight in the social club or the Gibraltar for a game of killer with the foundry lads.. With all them lads, was 1 girl who worked with all the lads.. Good looking lady with a suntan.. Wonder if anybody remembers her.. Somebody will as she stood out.. As I think the only female working on the shop floor.. Meaning non office... I did spend time in accounts bit the shop floor with the smells and the burning metal. And the stray cats was the place that interested me.. So sad to see it's all gone.. People are lost without it.. I see an older guy.. He was at mathers grafting day in day out.. Now if I call for a pint, he is always sat on his own in weatherspoons middleton. I said u ok pal.. He said I miss my days in graft and miss the lads and a sense of belonging.. That's what out industry's was built on... Sad to see the government ripped the industry apart... But I will always be thankful for the work ethic I got from mathers. It held me in good sted.. I'm 52 now and I'm a call centre manager, so it turned out OK for myself.. I just hope everyone else turned out OK..I had a massive crush on a girl there, Tina Brooks, haha.. I often wondered how she got on.. I left when I was 24 and moved away for a time, so I lost touch with everyone.. But again Thank you mathers for the memories.. The memories I had with Lee are priceless to me..

I worked in the offices on 10 bay from 1988 until 1993. With Lorna.. I was only 16 but loved it at mathers..The lads in the foundry amazed me how close nitt they was.. You had Russ, Crap hat the main boss Keith. It was a truly amazing place.. You could walk in 7am on a Monday. No place for an hangover from the social club. It was straight in to graft. Then a few pints in the Gibraltar before getting home.. I loved the place. Think it give myself good work ethics for my future. Think my gaffer was called Roy Cattermole.. I'm 52 now. Bet if he is alive he must be 80..He had a lady called Vanessa who worked in the office another great girl.. So helpful in my early days.. I remember my mum being dead proud when I got a job at mather and platt.. Then obviously weir pumps...

I owned a Colchester 2000 CNC Lathe that used to be in this plant. Interesting to know where it came from. I find it rather depressing hearing factories like this being quiet.

Send the video to the Tory government.

I worked in the drawing office, hydraulic design, so sad.

Great videos and a walk through which capture the ending of one of Manchesters biggest foundry works and employers. Half the site now hosts Europe’s newest and most technical operating robot driven plant bakeries producing 3 million loves of bread per week. The remaining buildings featured in this video have all been demolished in 2019 and the site is now being cleared 2022 ready for new life as distribution warehouses and small industrial units. It’s past is remembered though in the current bakery with pictures and with family members who worked in the foundry. Local people local jobs .

I used to drive the overhead electric cranes in the foundry in the 70`s, old Joe was my teacher.

Mather&Platt the best engineerings company in Manchester. My father Cliff Woodworth worked for many years in them dressing booths, I started my apprenticeship at Mathers in 1975, with 46 years continuous service with M&P/Weirs/Trillium, great memories of going in the foundry to have a word we my Dad, but didn’t say too long due to the fumes, don’t know how them guys managed to work in them conditions God only knows?

Great video i worked for worthington simpson one of your competitors, also gone

Hiya Pete, I work for what is now Johnson Controls, formally Tyco, formally Wormald, formally Mather & Platt. I only ever used the gym at the old Mather and Platt factory, that was if I remember correctly was over the pattern shop, I was never a Mathers man as the company I originally worked for was taken over after the new office block and workshop were built on Grimshaw Lane/Oldham road. There are still quite a few of the Mathers guys still here. I do remember the football matches, Foundry v's Wormald at the social club. Foundry guys usually won. I loved the social club and could be usually found there after work for a couple before going home. My motorcycle was nicked from inside the fencing in 2000 and the cheeky gits pushed it round to the canal on the side that the pool table was on that looked out to the football field, I must have been at the bar at the time as I was playing pool that evening. Great vid, I only ever saw the outside and the gym. On a slight another side, I saved a few drawings for fire doors originally from the 1920's and not updated until 1947 quite a few years ago (before the building refurb) for Eamon O'Brian who was collecting Mathers things for the Manchester museum of science and industry. Thanks for sharing , cheers, Lee.

Applied for a job there in the 1960's, never showed up for the job, came to America instead. My dad worked in their foundry, not for me.

Hi Pete! Really enjoying your videos. I see this was uploaded really recently, are you still working in the factory? I thought it was closed! Would you mind me emailing you some questions about Mathers Foundry? I'm an architecture student at Manchester University and I'm trying to find drawings and information on the building's structure and layout. Thanks!

So sad it's gone! I had a brief spell in the pump shop upto Christmas in 93! Great bunch guys.

Fascinating video, thanks. Shame this era ended. I used to go past this place fairly regularly a few years ago on a canal boat and I aways wanted to know what was going on in there. There was a regular air release noise that sounded like a lot of pressure escaping that I had come to the assumption was some kind of air hammer or moulding but I can't see what would cause that noise?

Only just found this, my dad worked here. He died when I was 17. Thank you so much for doing this.

Thanks for sharing,i worked there one weekend in the 1990s removing a blasting unit.I did 23yrs with Weir and worked many times in the pump repairs bay.

Finest Engineers and iron founders in the world ! Gone but not forgotten Wish I'd have got a job here when I left school :(

Those furnaces are cute compared to the ones I run

I do this for a living. I dont like how low that furnace sits seems like one wrong fall.

Does anyone know if they manufactured the Hydrostats here?

Does anybody know what the small out building with radiation signs on it was used for?

thanks for showing us around

Yes it was

Was this part of Mather & Platt..

Slagging?

Another one gone.

been good working with you pete all the best pal