Harris Factory Demolition, Calne

[@pauldavidson8627]

Unbelievable footage of a very traumatic time for Calne. I would have been 5/6 years old (guessing this 1982/1983?) when the building was knocked down and can remember watching from the main road by the Lansdown Hotel and then seeing it on the news later. My family left Calne in 1990 and in that time the town never recovered. I somtimes drive through and stop off to walk through the centre and it seems to have improved. This footage though, is very emotional to watch and somewhat haunting. Calne always had its fair share of problems but the town experienced the same issues as a lot of our large cities. Thankyou for sharing this video as this has helped me piece together my memories of the building that once dominted my home town.

[@wessexdruid7598]

I moved to Calne in March 1985 - and I can certainly remember at least some of the factory, alongside the A4, standing for at least a year or so after.

[@Dave_Angel]

I was there that day, sat in the car park behind the town hall. It's now an old peoples home.

[@sharonsandell9647]

I worked in the factory before I was married in 1980. I remember it closing and how devastating it was for the town then. My son watched the stone ball knock some of it down when he was 2 so it must have been 1983. I cannot believe how much land the whole factory took. To see Calne now with all the improvements it's a job to get my head round how it used to look. A brilliant video although very sad and a bit depressing but great to see how the town has recovered.

[@SowiloMedia]

For reference purposes, I'd been looking to indentify an abandoned abattoir/factory that a punk band I was in played during late August 1983 and this is definitely the one. Being from London, I wasn't familiar with the history and its been interesting to learn about the place; as someone else mentioned, looking at this great footage is quite emotional, so many buildings and places from our salad days no longer physically exist and this is like an echo from the past. To answer some of your comments, I've read from a few other sources that the demolition was in 1984.

[@CalnePastAndPresent]

That's really interesting! What was the band called? Was it for some sort of show or creating promotional material? You're right that the demolition began in 1984 (May 14), with Cllr Michael Flintoff chairman of the District Council swinging the iron ball into the factory to begin the demolition. I think at this point, they realised it wasn't going to be a quick job! It was mostly gone by 1985, and the Calne Heritage Centre have had an exihibtion about the demolition this year.

[@SowiloMedia]

@@CalnePastAndPresent The band was called 'Flowers In The Dustbin' Tim. I played guitar with them at the time. It was a two day midweek event in what we were told was a "squatted pig factory" and a number of bands played, none of which I can remember apart from a band called 'Chumbawumba' who had a hit with a song called Tubthumping in the 90's. I've got some great memories of those few days, nothing to do with the music though, hahaha (I've actually got a tape of our performance and its pretty awful and the natural reverb of the place didn't help!) I'm not sure the locals knew quite what had hit them when scores of punks and ne're-do-wells invaded the town! The first stop was for cider ;-)

[@NickinFilm]

I lived 4 New Road - right next door as this was coming down - Would watch the lead ball swinging from our garden - house at 7:56 . A young child, it was exciting. Hate to think how much asbestos we kids breathed in at that time.

[@paulcripps9451]

I found that quite sad to watch, I went to Fynamore school & had friends whos parents worked in the factory & I had been in there many times. My wife worked there from school in the accounts office on the corner of silver street, entrance off station road. I did not see the demolition of the factory as I was working in International transport and was rarely in the country. I can remember old Mr Harris riding through the town on his pony & trap too. Nothing seems to last forever, except the memories.

[@CalnePastAndPresent]

Thanks for sharing your memories Paul. I only moved to Calne a couple of years ago, so I don't have the emotions and memories that go with video footage such as this, so comments like yours really help to put the events into perspective.

[@rayrumming7901]

i served my apprenticeship in the printing dept up station Rd as a hand bookbinder, from June 2nd 1964 / oct 1970. now retired after 49 yrs in printing. Paul Cripps your name rings a bell, did your family come from Compton ? .

[@kelseyleithesaxa]

i live where this once was, creepy