I'd already had a solo attempt at Kutrite one night which ended in failure, but another idea I had about access paid off on a revisit with jazzywheelz, and we managed to squeeze our way in.
We were both very underwhelmed by the place, in fact jw didn't even get his camera out. I felt it was worth documenting as it's such an important site for Sheffield's industrial heritage.
In the 1970s, Sheffield boasted no less than 150 small scissor-making companies. Now there are just two. One of those companies, established in 1902, is Ernest Wright & Son (known as the more ‘modern’ Kutrite from the 60's up until the last few years). The other is William Whiteley & Sons.
Ernest Wright and Son, had only three skilled scissor-makers left at the start of 2010 but found a 20 year old apprentice to carry on their work and ensure the art of scissor making is not consigned to history. They moved to new premises on Broad lane, the first time in a long time that the company had not been located on Kelham Island and the company found a new lease of life. Not fantastic news for an explorer, as they took anything of interest with them in the move, but great news for the company and Sheffield’s industrial heritage.
Two great articles on Ernest Wright can be found here and here. The history page of their website is also interesting.
After spending far longer than was necessary at Kutrite, we headed over to Ecclesfield to check out the Working Men's Club, which was sealed tight, as well as a couple of other bits and pieces on the way, before heading back to Woodhouse to investigate a possible access to the church which there had been far too much daylight/people around for earlier in the evening.
Given it's location, we really struggled to light the place without alerting everyone in town to our presence. jw got some pretty decent shots in the end (see his post in this thread) but I wasn't happy with mine at all. It was just too fucking dark, and the D70 hates anything above iso200 or 30 second exposure!
I managed to get back around a week later at sunrise, and I'm really glad I did - the light was fantastic and really made the place very photogenic.
