This weekend i returned to the former Robert Fletcher and Son's Papermill at Greenfield. It had been just over 8 years since i first set foot on the site but even after years of being on the tourist trail i had an inkling there might be a bit more to see than what would be apparent from your average Fletcher's report. Was i right? You betcha!
On my first visit we had explored the main mill building but probably due to time constraints had not ventured deeper into the site. It was an epic day exploring and the place instantly went down in my book as one of the all time great industrial explores. The mill at the time was wonderfully intact, the absolute epitome of 'they just walked out one day and left it'. It had been closed about 6 years at the time but was still powered up and there was little to no damage from pikeys or explorers. The site, quite rightly, became a bit of an exploring hot spot in 2008 and with that came the usual gradual decline from untouched factory to a sea of setup urbex shots and name in the dust guestbooks, anyone been to George Barnsleys in the last 5 years? Yeh that!
By the time i returned a year or so later i was instantly pretty disappointed as quite frankly the site seemed a shadow of its former self. Where we had once been able to rummage in cupboards finding dressing up kits of the company mascot all you could really do now is walk around and take photos of smashed up milling equipment in the dark.. I guess it was still good but not at the level it once was. I again turned back before seeing anything new and that was that. I kind of chalked it off as dead and gone really.
Fast forward to 2016 and i have a free day in Manchester to explore. I hadn't planned to go back but my first few leads were a fail and i thought what the hey while im out in the hills i may as well swing by. After all i had that inkling i mentioned earlier. Boy im glad i did!
Now dont worry ACID- REFLUX im not going to try and claim 'first' with any of this as i know full well the whole mill was explored by the original guys who went there in late 2007 and i can't believe everyone since has had their heads totally in the sand too but i can say the boiler house, turbine hall and canteen buildings here are 'lesser spotted' at best or at worst i can say i've failed to see a single photo from them apart from the one or two posted in the original reports over 8 years ago! All i know for sure is i was delighted not only to find they were still there intact as the rest of the mill was on day one but also that they are so good they have totally pushed this place back up the UE league tables with me. It is simply stunning, the stuff we dream of and one of the best finds ever.
I wont bore people with too many photos of the main mill building but as i look back i realised i never actually posted a report on here back then and most others from the time are now just dead links. At the back of the building it was all manufacturing with rows of big 'death star' 'potcher' vessels and Bartrums beating machines to boil and beat the pulp. Further towards the front there were a pair of small paper making machines and if i remember rightly the modern extension on the side of the original mill had another large machine with distribution and packing facilities too. For me the best part however was the front office block. This was all locked up back then but with a little lateral thinking we managed to get into most of it seeing the aforementioned dressing up kit but also boxes and boxes of old photos, a full stocked drawing office, medical room and several decent mess rooms, even back then when a lot of older factories with that sort of thing were still around it really was top notch!
Now back to present day i found my way into the former turbine hall building. Unfortunately the turbines were removed long before closure and the building reused as storage for spares and general bits of junk but it wasn't the end of the world. On the top floor i also found an area that appeared to have been used to cut the cardboard tubing that the paper was wound onto.
On my first visit we had explored the main mill building but probably due to time constraints had not ventured deeper into the site. It was an epic day exploring and the place instantly went down in my book as one of the all time great industrial explores. The mill at the time was wonderfully intact, the absolute epitome of 'they just walked out one day and left it'. It had been closed about 6 years at the time but was still powered up and there was little to no damage from pikeys or explorers. The site, quite rightly, became a bit of an exploring hot spot in 2008 and with that came the usual gradual decline from untouched factory to a sea of setup urbex shots and name in the dust guestbooks, anyone been to George Barnsleys in the last 5 years? Yeh that!
By the time i returned a year or so later i was instantly pretty disappointed as quite frankly the site seemed a shadow of its former self. Where we had once been able to rummage in cupboards finding dressing up kits of the company mascot all you could really do now is walk around and take photos of smashed up milling equipment in the dark.. I guess it was still good but not at the level it once was. I again turned back before seeing anything new and that was that. I kind of chalked it off as dead and gone really.
Now dont worry ACID- REFLUX im not going to try and claim 'first' with any of this as i know full well the whole mill was explored by the original guys who went there in late 2007 and i can't believe everyone since has had their heads totally in the sand too but i can say the boiler house, turbine hall and canteen buildings here are 'lesser spotted' at best or at worst i can say i've failed to see a single photo from them apart from the one or two posted in the original reports over 8 years ago! All i know for sure is i was delighted not only to find they were still there intact as the rest of the mill was on day one but also that they are so good they have totally pushed this place back up the UE league tables with me. It is simply stunning, the stuff we dream of and one of the best finds ever.
The Main Mill - Early 2008
I wont bore people with too many photos of the main mill building but as i look back i realised i never actually posted a report on here back then and most others from the time are now just dead links. At the back of the building it was all manufacturing with rows of big 'death star' 'potcher' vessels and Bartrums beating machines to boil and beat the pulp. Further towards the front there were a pair of small paper making machines and if i remember rightly the modern extension on the side of the original mill had another large machine with distribution and packing facilities too. For me the best part however was the front office block. This was all locked up back then but with a little lateral thinking we managed to get into most of it seeing the aforementioned dressing up kit but also boxes and boxes of old photos, a full stocked drawing office, medical room and several decent mess rooms, even back then when a lot of older factories with that sort of thing were still around it really was top notch!
Turbine House - 2016
Now back to present day i found my way into the former turbine hall building. Unfortunately the turbines were removed long before closure and the building reused as storage for spares and general bits of junk but it wasn't the end of the world. On the top floor i also found an area that appeared to have been used to cut the cardboard tubing that the paper was wound onto.
