[lazy]

This site has been right at the top of both Denials and my hitlist of places that had to be done. We had made a few recce's during the week including this place but had all but decided to leave it as the place is in total lockdown with very active security.
The site is live and the sheds next door are fully operational, the grounds are also used as a holding compound for Vauxhall and is full of unregistered vehicles. Next door is an oil storage facility and loading dock for ships owned by Shell.
We had planned a big explore for Sunday and as the day drew nearer we thought it wasnt going to happen, plenty of emails passed between Denial and myself trying to come up with last minute possibilities, until in the end we decided that fortune favours the brave and we would go for it...............glad we did, it was well worth it.

Once again, on the way out we came within seconds of being busted but I will leave that for Denial to add along with his pictures.

I have copied some info from wiki to give a basic background.

William Laird had founded the Birkenhead Iron Works in 1824 and was joined by his son, John Laird in 1828. John realised that the techniques of making boilers could be applied to making ships. The company soon became pre-eminent in the manufacture of iron ships and made major advances in propulsion.

Johnson Cammell & Co. was founded by Charles Cammell and Henry and Thomas Johnson. The company made, amongst many other metal products, iron wheels and rails for Britain's railways.

In 1903 the businesses of Messrs. Cammell and Laird merged to create a company at the forefront of shipbuilding. Between 1829 and 1947, over 1,100 vessels of all kinds were launched from the Cammell Laird slipways into the River Mersey. Among the many famous ships made by the companies were the world's first steel ship, the Ma Roberts, built in 1858 for Dr. Livingstone's Zambezi expedition, Cunard's second Mauretania of 1939, and the first all-welded ship, the Fullagar built in 1920.

The post Second World War years were turbulent for Cammell Laird.
Cammel Laird's covered warship hall building and cranes.

It was nationalised along with the rest of the British shipbuilding industry as British Shipbuilders in 1977. In 1986, it returned to the private sector as part of VSEL another of the nationalised companies. VSEL and Cammell Laird were the only British shipyards capable of production of nuclear submarines. In 1993, it completed HMS Unicorn (S43) – now HMCS Windsor (SSK 877) – that to this day that is the last ship completed at the yard.

After experiencing financial difficulties, partly due to the failure of a £50 million cruise ship contract with Costa Crociere, the company was forced to enter receivership, and the Birkenhead, Gosport, Teesside and Tyneside shipyards were subsequently acquired by the A&P Shiprepair Group during 2001.[1] A&P has since sold the 140-acre (0.57 km2) Birkenhead site to Northwestern Shiprepairers in 2003, but continue to operate the other three yards as an integral part of their ship repair and conversion operations. The Cammell Laird brand continued in use through the Royal Dockyard facility in Gibraltar, which was acquired through a management buy-out in 2001, before being relaunched in late 2008 when Northwestern Shiprepairers took the name.

Peel Holdings purchased the Cammell Laird shipyard, in January 2007, to facilitate the proposed Wirral Waters development.[2]

In 2007, it was announced that the current occupiers of Cammell Laird Dock, Northwestern Shiprepairers and Shipbuilders has acquired the rights to the name[3].

In February 2008 it was announced that the company had won a £28m Ministry of Defence contract to overhaul the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship RFA Fort Rosalie.[4].

On 17 November 2008 Northwestern Shiprepairers and Shipbuilders officially renamed itself Cammell Laird, stating that recent economic success made the time right, and that "Cammell Laird is an internationally recognised brand which carries tremendous goodwill when bidding for contracts.

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LAZY