Today, we explore the ruins of the Brechin Castle Sugar Factory, but first a little history! Trinidad was seen as the jewel of the British crown of most of the colonies with its rich oil reserves and massive sugar industry that was the largest in the Caribbean. My ancestors, the indentured laborers that were brought in from India by the British worked the can fields that Trinidad was so well known for. Needless to say, the sugar industry was once a large part of our lives and so, I decided to document what was left of the factory in its current state before it is demolished at some point.
The sugar industry as a whole was shut down by the government at the time in 2006 much to the dismay of a large part of the population that relied on the industry. It was also seen as a ridiculous move as it would mean a larger import bill for the country. Today, the factory and its auxiliary buildings remain still, a prominent and iconic monolith amidst the planes that once were used to grow the sugar canes themselves.
People are not allowed inside at all and so I parked the car far away and sent up the drone to do some aerial exploration! I really love the abandoned, dystopian look of old places and it was quite exciting already just seeing the rusted steel frames and galvanizing from afar as the drone drew nearer.
We pass by this place everyday getting on with our daily lives and I was quite accustomed to seeing the factory while it was operational and maintained when I was a child and so being able to see it up close like this as it was now, I was quite shocked to see how dilapidated it had become! Nature seemed to be well on its way to reclaiming the space with trees and vines as well as grass almost seeming to grow upon and dismantle the structures as weathering did the rest.
I was so surprised to see so much of the internal machinery left in tact though as I would have assumed that the government would have sold them off but again I am not surprised as many things go to waste with certain regimes. There used to be two smokestacks, but just one remains after the other collapsed around 2012 2013. You can see what remains of the collapsed one above. I used to love looking at their size and how they billowed with smoke when I was a child.
Flying around to the other side, I noticed that the factory floor that once used to be all concrete was already taken over by grass and other shrubberies. It is quite amazing how nature does this without seemingly any effort at all! Imagine how many great structures of the past have been demolished naturally and rendered non existent except for what was left of the memories of those who died while it was something.
I felt a little brave and decided to lower the drone in between the large factory ruins to get a nice peek inside where whole walls were completely rotted away. It gave view to machinery and structures that would have otherwise been hidden. It was also quite interesting to see grass and trees also growing on the higher up floors as well!
I could almost see people walking around the factory floors doing their jobs, braving the heat of the boilers and centrifuges thinking about how long again before their shift ends or when was lunch (which was signaled by a large siren that is usually used in the US for tornado warnings that you can hear from every part of the town. This was so workers way out in the large cane fields that stretched for miles around the factory could hear it.
There were some peculiar structures that seemed to be offices attached to the main factory itself probably where managers and paperwork were stationed. Even here in there elevated floors, there were lots of grass and vines! I was quite glad the roofing was gone so we could see what it looked like on the inside.
I found another factory floor in the back where the whole roof was gone in its entirety revealing large rusted machinery and spaces were machinery would have been in open holes in the floor itself. It was quite interesting to see!
It was like seeing the open dissection and anatomy of the factory itself. The old abandoned asthetic was so beautiful in a way and and I could not at all get enough of it and realized that the drones battery was going to die soon.
All I could think about was how there were so many generations of people that lived and worked in these walls but also I could also imagine having an epic paint ball death match here or maybe it being made into a call of duty map! It is quite sad though that what was once part of huge history of Trinidad was left to rot away. There were plans to make it into a museum but alas the funding and care that was needed was not deemed important enough by the relevant authorities! Thanks a lot for exploring the Brechin Castle Ruins with us!
