Factors leading to the eventual closure.
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| Graham Martin - photo:Torrington Museum |
Torrington Milk Factory
Known as Torridge Vale Dairies, Unigate, Milk Marketing Board and lastly Dairy Crest.
Part 1. How it all ended.
In the 1960's the factory was the biggest milk manufacturing site in Europe. It had over
2000 milk producers supplying the factory all in churns. The milk field covered llfracombe
in the north, Bude in the west, South Molton in the east and Okehampton in the south.
Around 1976 Express Dairies decided to build a new cheese factory at North Tawton.
Unigate retaliated by extending their factory at Chard. This meant that the MMB had to
reallocate some producers to these sites and thus Torrington lost out. Also any surplus milk
at peak production times in the South West went to Chard first as it was nearest to the large
populated areas or shared between North Tawton and Torrington.
Torrington still was a large manufacturing site and profitable through the 70's and early 80's.
Through this period there was public concern about the 'butter mountains' and pressure for
the dairy industry to cut back their production. Meanwhile the government was asking the
industry to produce more butter and cheese etc to reduce the reliance on imports. Thus we
installed the Stork Drier in 1983/85 to also replace the old Scott Drier and Roller Plants.
Out of the blue on 2nd April 1984 the European Commission brought in milk quotes.
We were then asked to stop work on the Stork Drier but it was pointed out to MMB Head
Office that it would cost more to stop than to carry on, they agreed in the end, so we
completed the drier installation.
The quotas began to bite and the smaller factories in the country started to close.
The large Butter and Powder factories were not flavour of the month the more retail type
factories make yoghurts, spreads etc and indeed cheese were likely to remain open for
longer as the industry contracted.
Torrington had a stay of execution when the Dairy Crest clover manufacture was brought to
the site.
Things became tighter and tighter. We were asked to cut out as many costs as possible
particularly staff, Torrington went from nearly 400 staff in the 70's (not including
Transport) to around 130 staff at the end. Eventually the decision was made by Head Office
to close the Torrington site.
The last production was on 30th March 1993 and the site officially closed as Dairy Crest
and handed over to Dartington Crystal on 19th February 1994.
The Transport operation carried on at the site for several years until its work could be
transferred elsewhere.
Part 2. What happened after.
The closure announced to the staff in January 1993 was a major shock not only to them but
also to the local community. The two other main employers in Torrington, North Devon
Meat and Dartington Crystal often had questions raised about their futures.
North Devon Meat did close a few years later but fortunately at least the latter is still in
operation today.
By March 1993 Dairy Crest had dealt with a number of factory closures and put in place at
Torrington the systems they had introduced to make effects of the closure on the staff as
palatable as possible. A job shop was set up on site where staff could go to on a personal
level to understand what redundancy payments they were entitled to and to discuss pension
etc.
More importantly there was regular contact with all the local Job Centres on all job
vacancies that were available in the area. These were all posted on a notice board for all
staff to see and help was given to them to arrange interviews.
This operation was very successful in helping the staff and was the least the company could
do to repay the loyalty the staff had shown over the years.
Most of the staff remained in their jobs until the end of production in March 1993 but some
were allowed to leave early without any effect to their redundancy payment if they had a
job to go to.
Progressively the staff left through April and May, Production staff, Laboratory staff,
Engineering staff, Office staff and Management staff.
A small team remained until the end of August because an auction was to take place of all
the plant and equipment that was left after some plant and equipment was transferred to
other factories.
The person in charge was the Factory Accountant, the only senior manager left on site,
together with four engineers and six production staff.
Their duties were to take out of all the departments where possible the plant and equipment
and put into the large West Powder Store.
The very large plant like the Milk Silos etc were left in situ. Everything was given an
auction number and after a viewing day the auction took place over 2 days in the staff
canteen.
The auction was successful but not all the plant and equipment was sold for instance the last
remaining chimney was not taken down until five years later.
The staffing level was reduced to the accountant in charge plus one engineer and three
production staff after the sale and this continued until the end of the year.
Dairy Crest would not sell off parcels of the land and buildings it had to be the whole site
sold or none at all.
The Transport site was separate of all this and remained in operation for number of years
after.
A presence had to be kept on site until a buyer could be found.
During this period the staff occupied themselves disposing of the small items left in the sale
and took out some of the remaining stainless steel pipework etc and most of the monies
received were sent back to Head Office but not all.
A small 'slush fund' was kept and this was used to give all those that had remained in the
final months an evening meal at 'The Gribble Inn' together with some drinks.
All staff left at the end of 1993 except the accountant who remained to deal with the final
administration of the site and to deal with the hand over to Dartington Crystal who bought
the whole site but they only used a couple of buildings.
The accountant left on 19th February 1994 ironically on the birthday of the last factory
manager.
Dartington Crystal stayed on the site for about four years and during that time they built
storage facilities nearer their production up in the town so they moved out but they still
owned the site. They did sell off an area in Rolle Road before they left to a local farmers
co-operative known as Torridge Vale Ltd in 1998.
TVL occupied the buildings that used to house clover and clotted cream, the three small
stores and the main butter store. TVL remained on site until 2019.
Dartington Crystal eventually sold the site to a developer who was going to build small
industrial units and houses but he ran into various problems and sold it to the current
developer who has planning permission to build houses.
During the period 1994 to the present day the site had been fenced off but this has not
stopped people entering the site and causing damage because there is no on site security.
When the Dairy Crest Transport site finally closed it was bought by M & D Transport of
Torrington who used it for their haulage business for several years until they sold up around
2017.
There is real hope that the current developer will deliver on his plans to build several houses
on the site.
He has cleared all the various planning requirements and legal procedures and has bought
the land formerly owned by TVL.
The major problem will be pulling down all the old buildings most of which will contain
asbestos.
It will be interesting to see if they find the 'time capsule' that was put somewhere underneath
the floor of the old butter room. Perhaps by the end of the decade there will be no trace of
the factory which was originally started in 1880 to 1884 by Mr Sandford.
The Social Club
The club known as Torridge Vale Social Club had operated on the site of an old church in
the town opposite the now Conservative Club for about 40 years and was also to be included
in the overall sale.
The committee met to discuss if there was a possibility of the club purchasing the property
and with club finances in good order gave permission for the steering committee to
negotiate with Dairy Crest.
The Factory Accountant Graham Martin led the discussions with Dairy Crest and together
with fellow committee members Chris Stacey, Jimmy Thacker and Roy Lee finally agreeing
a purchase price of £25000.
A meeting was called for all the members of the club to attend to make the final decision.
The options for the members were limited either the club ceased to exist because Dairy
Crest would sell the site anyway or see if we could buy the property and carry on as before.
The meeting was well attended and on the understanding that the club had the funds and that
the committee were prepared to run the business the members unanimously agreed to buy
the property.
A private limited company was set up in February 1994 which enabled the club to purchase
the property. The committee ran the club as before but knew that they had the overall
responsibility for the upkeep of the property and would need to expand its membership base
to people living in the town to survive.
This has been successful with a football team and boxing club operating from the club.
Membership fees are kept to a minimum and bar prices are cheaper than pubs and generally
cheaper than other clubs in the town.
Enough money has to be made to plough profits back into the business for its upkeep and t
update the facilities as and when required.
The club officially known as Torridge Vale Social Club Limited still successfully operates in
2023 serving the community not only with bar and games facilities but also able to cater for
weddings, christenings, birthdays, wakes and discos.
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