Prime industrial site revamped in Haltwhistle Northumberland

The 14‑acre Hadrian Enterprise Park, situated on the southern outskirts of Haltwhistle, is on a self‑contained site adjacent to and with direct access onto the A69 trunk road.

Hadrian Enterprise Park was for decades a major employer under Crown Paints and later Akzo Nobel.

When Crown Paints closed its factory in 2002, 126 jobs were lost, prompting concerns among councillors and residents that the site could lie derelict for years after a series of proposed investments failed to materialise.

Jobling Purser's automated bagging machine on-site (Image: Natalie Finnigan)

Several businesses have occupied parts of the former Crown Paints building over the past 20 years, but many ultimately moved on, leaving large sections of the site underused.

An archive image of the Crown Paints building at Hadrian Enterprise Park (Image: NQ)

Jobling Purser, which has operated since 1830, has sites at Newcastle's Scotswood Road, Carlisle and now in Haltwhistle, within the Crown Paints building.

The business develops and manufactures products used around the world, specialising in producing highway maintenance solutions.

The Haltwhistle fire engine at the Jobling Purser site (Image: Natalie Finnigan)

It manufactures asphalt, macadam, and bitumen emulsions. Bitumen is used for waterproofing, protective coatings, and road surfacing.

Hadrian Enterprise Park covers 14 acres next to the A69 (Image: NQ)

Jobling Purser opened its Carlisle site in 2017. Haltwhistle was the business's latest acquisition, after it purchased half of the Hadrian Enterprise Park site in January 2025.

There are other businesses that were operating on the Enterprise Park before the site was purchased, and these continue as tenants of Jobling Purser.

The company gave NFRS a secure storage space for the fire engine for several months while essential roadworks were ongoing outside the station (Image: Natalie Finnigan)

Patrick Coulson, who has worked at Jobling Purser for 15 years, is the company's asphalt director and oversees all road material manufacturing.

He works between all three sites, although he was initially based at the Scotswood Road site.

"I like to think we've gone some way to tidying [the Enterprise Park] up and making it look a bit more presentable," he said. "All of our staff are local, more than 50 per cent of them are actually from Haltwhistle, but we're all from Northumberland.

"We have two sides to the business, one side makes tarmac for the road, and the other makes sundry products such as glues and maintenance products for the roads," Patrick said.

Staff and NFRS crew outside the building on Hadrian Enterprise Park (Image: Natalie Finnigan)

One of the biggest processes at the Haltwhistle site is recycling roadplanes for asphalt plants in Carlisle and Newcastle.

"That's material that's been taken off the roads, processed here and sent to the asphalt plants to go back into tarmac for the roads. We have an automated bagging line here that the lads operate on, and we drum bitumen for various places that can't take bulk bitumen."

Bitumen is packed into drums for places without offload facilities, such as the Falkland Islands.

The business has developed a new material to fix potholes named Revitamac (Image: Natalie Finnigan)

Mr Coulson said the company has also opened a new public weighbridge next to the site.

“With it being so handy next to the A69, it’ll help people passing who may need to weigh vehicles,” he said. “With all the material we take to the two plants, we have a lot of movement in and out - it’s quite busy.”

He added there could be further expansion at the site if Jobling Purser is successful in securing new contracts, which could lead to additional full‑time or casual roles.

"We're quite a cautious business, we don't grow too quickly, we'll get this site at Haltwhistle up and running and make a success of it before the next project."

The company has also supported the local community by providing space for Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service to store equipment for several months, after firefighters from Haltwhistle Community Fire Station needed a secure place to house their fire engine while essential roadworks affected access to the station as well as provided space for organisers of a popular Christmas event in Haltwhistle to store their Santa sleigh.

The space where NFRS stored its fire engine (Image: Natalie Finnigan)

"We wanted to offer whatever support we could and make it easier for them. We were happy to do that for them," Patrick added.

Lynsey McVay, NFRS interim chief fire officer, wrote to Patrick to 'express sincere thanks' on behalf of the service saying the arrangement helped ensure an effective emergency response was maintained during the disruption.

The automated bagging line (Image: Natalie Finnigan)

The Haltwhistle site is also involved in trials of a new pothole repair material developed by Jobling Purser, which the company hopes will last longer and be more cost‑effective than traditional fixes.

"There are ongoing issues with potholes; it's the buzzword at the moment. People are looking at the fact that potholes are appearing in the same places," he said.

Jobling Purser's R&D department, which develops, tests and improves specialised highway maintenance products, tried to engineer something 'a little bit different' to fix potholes.

The letter from Lynsey McVay thanking Jobling Purser for providing secure storage for the fire engine (Image: Natalie Finnigan)

Jobling Purser has been collaborating with Northumberland and Gateshead councils in recent months and says companies elsewhere in the UK are also using its product.

Patrick said they had trialled the material by filling in potholes outside the entrance to the Jobling Purser site on the Hadrian Enterprise Park.

"There are a lot of wagons in and out of here, so we put it out the entrance because we knew it would get a lot of high stress. We've been trialling it at Newcastle for about two years to see if it works."

The new pothole material, called Revitamac, uses approximately 85 per cent recyclable materials, the company said.

All Jobling Purser's staff at the Haltwhistle site are from Northumberland (Image: Natalie Finnigan)

"We're excited about it, it's early days, and the proof will be in the pudding, but we're confident it will outlast and outperform the current pothole scenario."