Report - Ditchford Mill Northants September 2024

[The Young One]

History

Ditchford mill opens sometimes around the 1800s as a waterpowered Cornmill. It then ceased use as a Cornmill and then became a slaughter house which shut in 2000 it then had a short time of abandonment it then became a container storage place and has been purchased by several other container companies the last one being CTS Transport which has now gone bust. The photos are yet again crappy phone pics.

Part of the old mill.

Never heard of these nor knew they existed.

anyone know what this is?

the old mill tunnel thingy which the nene runs under.

Demolished Part of the mill.

there were loads of these bins left over from the slaughter house days.

And what's left of an old flooded pump house. Cheers for viewing.

 

[betamax toploader]

Chettles mill. It wasnt a slaughterhouse mate, it was they processed the animal remains and feathers. I did some service work there (and Goosey lodge Wymington), on the trucks, and believe me, once you had stepped one pace into the boiler room, it was a smell / taste that you will never forget.

Rushden Research Group: Chettles - De Mulder

 

[The Young One]

Chettles mill. It wasnt a slaughterhouse mate, it was they processed the animal remains and feathers. I did some service work there (and Goosey lodge Wymington), on the trucks, and believe me, once you had stepped one pace into the boiler room, it was a smell / taste that you will never forget.

Rushden Research Group: Chettles - De Mulder

Ahh cheers mate on the info

 

[mingerocket]

Your question about the Caustic Soda Solution.
It's Sodium Hydroxide.
It's not something you want to get on your skin not in your eyes, it's an alkali corrosive that's particularly good at dissolving organic tissue such as yourself.
It was probably used in some cleaning process or other or dosed into the feedwater for the steam boiler if they had one.

 

[Bikin Glynn]

Chettles mill. It wasnt a slaughterhouse mate, it was they processed the animal remains and feathers. I did some service work there (and Goosey lodge Wymington), on the trucks, and believe me, once you had stepped one pace into the boiler room, it was a smell / taste that you will never forget.

Rushden Research Group: Chettles - De Mulder

Yep worked there too, they used to turn the unedible bits of chickens into pet food.
I was erecting a new building when the river was in flood the concrete bases we were bolting the steel frame in had filled up with blood & guts.
I also had to make some connections back to one of the existing sheds, the o ly way I could get up to do this was walk up the pile of chicken heads!

 

[The Young One]

Your question about the Caustic Soda Solution.
It's Sodium Hydroxide.
It's not something you want to get on your skin not in your eyes, it's an alkali corrosive that's particularly good at dissolving organic tissue such as yourself.
It was probably used in some cleaning process or other or dosed into the feedwater for the steam boiler if they had one.

Oh so that's what Is is cheers for that info mate.

Yep worked there too, they used to turn the unedible bits of chickens into pet food.
I was erecting a new building when the river was in flood the concrete bases we were bolting the steel frame in had filled up with blood & guts.
I also had to make some connections back to one of the existing sheds, the o ly way I could get up to do this was walk up the pile of chicken heads!

Very nice I hope you were wearing boots for the pile of chicken heads. We're the rest of the chickens still running around?

 

[betamax toploader]

Yep worked there too, they used to turn the unedible bits of chickens into pet food.
I was erecting a new building when the river was in flood the concrete bases we were bolting the steel frame in had filled up with blood & guts.
I also had to make some connections back to one of the existing sheds, the o ly way I could get up to do this was walk up the pile of chicken heads!

My visit there, I pulled into the truck park, and a secretary came walking out of the container / office room, and paused to remove a chicken claw that she impaled upon her shoe heel. That was when I thought, what is this place? Until that point, I never thought that I would need waders to work on a truck.

 

[Bikin Glynn]

Oh so that's what Is is cheers for that info mate.

Very nice I hope you were wearing boots for the pile of chicken heads. We're the rest of the chickens still running around?

No they had already gone to KFC