History

Broughton Printers Ltd was originally founded in 1988 and later acquired by Northern & Shell as part of its purchase of the Express Newspapers in 2001. The printers, at its peak, employed 200 staff across the 15,805 m2 site and produced around 11 million newspapers and magazines each day! Production finally ceased on 8th July 2015 after a 5-year contract to produce the Evening Post newspapers ended and was not renewed.

Millions of pounds worth of relatively modern printing and sorting equipment then stood in the empty building whilst attempts to find a buyer failed. The last I heard most of the interior was sold off as scrap and the place was being demolished to make was for future developments.

Our Visit

I was fortunate enough to be invited along for a permission visit to this location. It’s quite rare that I visit these buildings with permission but sometimes it’s the only way to see certain places and in cases like this where we had pretty much unrestricted access wherever we wanted to go it really didn’t seem to hinder the shoot :D.

Visited with a good bunch of SOCC’s, when we first pulled up I must admit I was a little underwhelmed by the place… the bland exterior left me assuming the worst for the inside but when we did make our way to the main production and sorting lines I was pleasantly surprised with the scale of the equipment. I think my favourite parts had to be the main two printing lines, the first smaller one was long and narrow and had a yellow and black circular disc at one end that looked like something out of Fallout 4 🙂 The second, larger, more modern printing line was huge around 4-5 floors in height in parts with gantries at either side to get a good view of the scale of it all. Enjoy the photos:

If you’ve made it this far… thanks for reading / checking out the pictures. Leave me a comment below or hit the like button to let me know you’ve enjoyed the shots and to encourage me to keep posting more 🙂

Limited Edition prints and Canvases, as well as regular prints, are available for all of the images above on request and visit the store for more prints and products.

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