Masso Factory

Being an avid fan of history it has become increasingly difficult to walk past a big feature on one of our favourite walks along the coast without an increase in curiosity, namely the Masso factory. I decided to try and find out a little bit more about the mysterious Masso. Sadly now derelict it still retains an atmosphere of a past age not unlike the dark satanic mills of home.......however it turns out to be surprisingly modern. The stylised Masso logo on the tower and the general Art deco feel should really have given me a clue.

It is obvious that this was once a huge part of local peoples lives, employing large numbers. It was a pioneer of the fish canning industry, the factory was built after the war and was the first Spanish owned fish cannery and was also the biggest canning factory in Europe. There was another factory a few miles way away at Bueu.
The factory at Cangas shut down in 1992 a few years after the Bueu factory presumably refrigeration had overtaken the canning industry, Morocco seems to be the source of the large amount of canned fish available locally.
Masso was owned and run by the Masso family, the family had been involved in fishing and the sea since the 1890s. Initially in partnership with the French they became a limited company in the 1930s.

These are a couple of photos of the factory floor, many of the processes and machinery in the factory were state of the art for the time but it is also apparent from the photo that the majority of the workforce were women.

Today if you hunt around at the side of the factory it is possible to discover the crèche that was presumably used to look after the women's children. A surprisingly far sighted social advance.

The crèche or nursery has a splendid but now sadly dilapidated fountain featuring a dolphin. The buildings themselves have become a canvas for graffiti artists and at least one building seems to be unofficially occupied. The picture on the staircase like most of the graffiti and slogans seems to have a political message, depicting the Mass factory tumbling off the edge of an industrial conveyor belt.

The building itself is still very imposing and actually on the evening I took these photos the strong wind was vibrating some of the metal panels covering the extensive windows and the noises seemed to suggest that the building was if not actually alive certainly occupied. A bit spooky!

A little way along the foreshore (this is a popular evening walk) is another Masso enterprise that was in operation from the 1950s and was still in operation in the 1970s. It is a whale processing plant.

Again, it is now seriously dilapidated. It was owned and operated by José María and Gaspar Massó .

In its heyday the ramp, now broken up in the foreground would have been the working area for dismembering whales. In the photo below I believe this is a sperm whale. The whales were pulled up from the water by steam engines.

The workings are extensive and its possible to guess at some of the buildings use for processing the carcass and rendering the blubber for oil.

Most of it now is a useful party venue for young people and a surprisingly good art gallery most of the internal walls being covered in graffiti of a high standard. I was particularly moved by the picture below which is probably not far off  life size!

I try not to be too judgemental about history, these things are of their time and need to be seen in the moral context of that time, but I am very glad this particular factory is no longer in operation.