THE BATA Heritage Centre volunteers are delighted to announce that our next Open Day will be on Saturday 21 October from 10:00am to 2:00pm. They have usually held their Open Days during the week so this is a great opportunity for those who are normally working to come along and visit them.
A spokesperson said: “What’s more we are going to hold the event in the old admin building on the former Bata factory site. The venue will be the ground floor of Building 13. For those of you who did not work in admin or who are not familiar with the numbering system used by Bata this is the first 5-storey building on the right as you enter through the original factory gates.
“Please note, there is a considerable amount of work taking place, at the moment, in and around the factory site. The owners plan is to create a new vehicle entrance next to the ‘car wash’ (the former garage site). Reason for this is that there are new properties being built in the area of the old car park and EDP building. At the time of writing I do not know which entry will be available. Therefore, I would suggest for those of you coming by car, that you use the Bata Memorial Park area for your vehicle and carefully walk across the road to join us.
“Depending on numbers we hope to offer a guided tour at 12 noon (£3.00 per person) around the Bata Estate by volunteers including the well-known local historian Mike Ostler.
“The Bata Heritage Centre volunteers will be very happy to meet and greet old friends as well as new ones. Come and visit us and see more of the history and heritage of the British Bata Shoe Company in East Tilbury”.
