The girls’ gymnasium had a large dressing room with twenty porcelain slipper baths. By 1869, Rowntree was in financial difficulties and his brother, Joseph Rowntree, joined him in full partnership, and H.I. The whole of the first floor was to be devoted to a dining room for girls. In 1864, Rowntree acquired an old iron foundry at Tanners Moat for £1,000, and moved production there. However to date no construction has begun.”Production moved from this building in 2006, as modern methods allowed the global firm to produce more confectionery with fewer people in a newer home on the same site.The pictures act as a last look at a place which was so important in the life of the 20th century city.Looking at these pictures, it’s hard to imagine that this buiding once thrummed with industry, overseen by thousands of city workers.They are all taken inside the old Nestlé Rowntree factory which created its final chocolate treat a long time ago. In 1890 Joseph Rowntree bought 29 acres of land off Haxby Road and began to build a new modern industrial complex. This five storey building was built in the 1930s. In 1899 an additional 31 acres had been purchased in order to expand the fruit growing capacity of the Haxby Road site. In 1862, Henry Rowntree bought a simple cocoa works in York and turned it into a confectionery company. The construction, in the form of a letter “H”, was of reinforced concrete. Though the main factory frontage onto Haxby Road remains intact, and manufacturing continues in more up-to-date purpose-built buildings, demolition of the area labelled Nestlé South began in the winter and continues. This complex was to house the manufacture of gum products and was sited with a main entrance onto Wigginton Road and a smaller pedestrian footpath access from Haxby Road. Swain and built by the Rowntree’s building department using a innovative form of reinforced concrete to create the structure.From the York Press, 4 June 1913: The design is understood to have incorporated some of the longest concrete beams in the county. The Dining Block included a gymnasium, school room (former continuation school) and lecture hall.The Cream Block was constructed using a steel-frame and brick cladding. Rowntree & Co was formally established. Brown and W.J. This complex was to house the manufacture of gum products and was sited with a main entrance onto Wigginton Road and a smaller pedestrian footpath access from Haxby Road.
In 1869, the factory was staffed by 12 men. The men’s dining room was on the north side of the second floor.”Rowntree & Co. Ltd. went through a series of alterations and expansions throughout the twentieth-century.On the north side were the woodwork, science, and other rooms planned as the boys’ classes, the lecture and concert room, and two girls’ dressmaking classrooms. In 1890 Joseph Rowntree bought 29 acres of land off Haxby Road and began to build a new modern industrial complex. We are lucky to have some of these photographs of the work here.Adjoining the boys’ gymnasium, were six sets of shower and foot baths, and a dressingroom. About time I got around to noting the demise of part of the old Rowntree (Nestlé) factory site. In addition, the factory was connected to the NER branch line via a private railway link.Today (2018) parts of the original factory building are being redeveloped for a major housing scheme that retains the historical exterior.The new block, devoted to social and educational purposes, was reached from the factory exits by covered corridors which terminated in a subway leading under Haxby Road to the entrance hall. The photographs are the work of Exploring The North – an urban explorer who chronicles derelict places – and shared on their social channels last week. Swain and constructed using an innovative concrete compound (Pevsner 1972, 246). The ground floor was to be mainly devoted to scholastic work.The dining block was constructed on the opposite side of Haxby Road and accessed from the factory via a subway. The roof line has a ornate band of white sculpted render.“Today was an important one for Messrs Rowntree and Co Ltd. New school buildings and dining rooms of fine dimensions were opened at the works of the firm in Haxby Road, and the function was attended by many distinguished people.The Dining Block was renovated and modified during 1965 to provide a “streamlined service area, modern kitchen, still-rooms and stores… with up-to-date equipment”. They are all taken inside the old Nestlé Rowntree factory which created its final chocolate treat a long time ago. THEY have lain empty for a decade, but now developers are on the cusp of converting a piece of York’s industrial heritage into high-spec new homes.