Arla Milk Processing Plant, Hatfield Perverel, Essex – Feb 2017
Well, this one was some time back! Coupling a backlog with the decision of keeping this one till it was gone, simply because there were bits and pieces going on here such as the sale of the equipment; I decided to mothball it.
Myself and two Non-Explorer friends decided one evening back in the winter, that while one of their partners was on a night out in London we would make use of the time and do a few Essex/London night explores.
Our first couple of sites did not turn out quite the way we wanted so we decided to follow this lead. We weren’t disappointed!
History
Arla Foods, formerly Dairy Crest; situated in Hatfield Peverel in Essex was a dairy production factory in Hatfield Peverel in Essex and processed milk for large firms such as Cravendale and supermarkets across the UK; with organic milk production taking place on site as well. The Hatfield site had the capacity to process 356,000 litres of milk per day!
By March 2016; the company announced its plans to close the factory and spend £150 million on upgrading the companies shiny new mega dairy in Aston Clinton near Aylesbury which has the facilities to produce 1 billion litres of milk per year. The Aylesbury site is now the worlds largest dairy operation plant.
Only 32 of 200 employees would retain their jobs after the July 2016 closure of the Essex site which has been demolished to make way for a shiny new much needed Housing Development in Hatfield Peverel.
The Explore
This explore came as a much needed and Crave(ndale)’d (see what I did there….) large factory explore back in the winter. After failing many Essex sites we rocked up here and spent several hours on site; my non-explorer friend delaying the collection of his partner from her night on the town in London several times and by several hour (she was safely at her friends!).
The site is huge and we were uncertain if security were on site at all so remained vigilant as always. Plenty had already been removed from the site and it was obvious that demolition was well underway inside the buildings.
It became apparent by things left behind on site; that the closure was sudden and came as a bit of a shock. It seemed that there was a bit of a family vibe amongst the workers here. A mural written in glue on the door of a locker can be found amongst these photos.
Unsurprisingly; many parts of the building smelt of gone off milk; though other bits were squeaky clean and sterile, ready for the machines to be sold to other dairies.
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As always guys; thanks for your time. Sorry it’s been a slow couple of years!
More At:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/landie_man/albums/72157682698884470
Well, this one was some time back! Coupling a backlog with the decision of keeping this one till it was gone, simply because there were bits and pieces going on here such as the sale of the equipment; I decided to mothball it.
Myself and two Non-Explorer friends decided one evening back in the winter, that while one of their partners was on a night out in London we would make use of the time and do a few Essex/London night explores.
Our first couple of sites did not turn out quite the way we wanted so we decided to follow this lead. We weren’t disappointed!
History
Arla Foods, formerly Dairy Crest; situated in Hatfield Peverel in Essex was a dairy production factory in Hatfield Peverel in Essex and processed milk for large firms such as Cravendale and supermarkets across the UK; with organic milk production taking place on site as well. The Hatfield site had the capacity to process 356,000 litres of milk per day!
By March 2016; the company announced its plans to close the factory and spend £150 million on upgrading the companies shiny new mega dairy in Aston Clinton near Aylesbury which has the facilities to produce 1 billion litres of milk per year. The Aylesbury site is now the worlds largest dairy operation plant.
Only 32 of 200 employees would retain their jobs after the July 2016 closure of the Essex site which has been demolished to make way for a shiny new much needed Housing Development in Hatfield Peverel.
The Explore
This explore came as a much needed and Crave(ndale)’d (see what I did there….) large factory explore back in the winter. After failing many Essex sites we rocked up here and spent several hours on site; my non-explorer friend delaying the collection of his partner from her night on the town in London several times and by several hour (she was safely at her friends!).
The site is huge and we were uncertain if security were on site at all so remained vigilant as always. Plenty had already been removed from the site and it was obvious that demolition was well underway inside the buildings.
It became apparent by things left behind on site; that the closure was sudden and came as a bit of a shock. It seemed that there was a bit of a family vibe amongst the workers here. A mural written in glue on the door of a locker can be found amongst these photos.
Unsurprisingly; many parts of the building smelt of gone off milk; though other bits were squeaky clean and sterile, ready for the machines to be sold to other dairies.
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
#10
#11
#12
#13
#14
#15
#16
#17
#18
#19
#20
As always guys; thanks for your time. Sorry it’s been a slow couple of years!
More At:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/landie_man/albums/72157682698884470
we did find a hole in the ground, and underneath was full of old cow fat... yuck
