Report - Molins Factory, Buckinghamshire. October 2020

[RXQueen]

It was a factory which produced the machinery to make cigarettes

i’ll. amend the title. thank you

 

[Airfix]

Good set of photographs, just so trashed.

 

[wgohbm]

nice write up and pics. saved me the trouble as well - was there a month ago on a similar wet day. looks even worse shape now though. shame about the skatepark as it looked like it was pretty cool at one time.

 

[AREA51]

Good pics, thanks.

 

[OKizzle]

Here is a video of the Ballroom in its prime, before it got trashed

(1) Ballroom Sessions - YouTube

Here's a little more to flesh out your timeline of the building.

We found the place abandoned in 2009, There was a security guard & a digger on site so we assumed something was happening. We can came back 6 years later in 2015 & nothing had changed. we skated outside for a while then we checked out the ballroom for the first time. The building had been converted into offices when we found it. there was stud wall cubicles with windows and doors & the whole room was carpeted. From that day me and about 6 other lads ( wycombe locals) spent every weekend and alot of week nights working hard to make it our own DIY skate spot. We had about 4 solid years there with no major problems. we had a verbal deal with the land owner which ment we were allowed on site to maintain a presence so it wouldnt get vandalised as much. We were known by the local police who visited us a handful of times and saw we werent juist kids trashing the place. most of the times they came down we were either cleaning up some minor vandalism or we were building ramps or ledges to skate so they left us to our buisness. There was a groud of around 10 of us who used it frequently but less than half of us actually maintained the place. most weeks their would be windows smashed & glass all over the floor. sometimes people would actually break in and have a go at messing the place up. For a period of about a month over one christmas we had a real bad spell of vandalism from a few lads loosely accociated with a car meet up called ''shutter gang''. In the room next door with the sky lights the local BMXers started building their own spot to ride. When both sides were getting vandalised really bad we formed a whatsapp group chat with everyone in. Every weekend for a month people were coming down at 2 or 3 in the morning and b reakign in with power tools, saws, grinders, sledge hammers etc & wrecking the place. they put many holes in alot of the ramps, Poured cement everywhere, smashed windows & set sofas on fire. Proper dickheads basically. one night a group of us all decided to have a stakeout and catch these bell ends. its was around 2 in the morning and 3 cars pulled up outside the ballroom, they must have spotted us because they all drove away. One of the lads from the bmx side follwed them & managed to take nbote of the car model and number plate. The next day one of us searched facebook to match the car and number plate, eventually we found him. sent him a polite message not to return unless he wants his car ruined. they never returned. We had some bloody good times there. I skated there every weekend for atleast 4 years and hand on heart I never had a bad session.

There is alot more to this story, I apoligise for kind of rambling there for abit. We put a hell of alot of time, effort and our own money into making this place what it was. Its sad to see it in its current state but i only have great memories of the place.

There will be a propper documentry made of our story one day, keep an eye out

Thanks for reading

Ollie Keiderling

 

[OKizzle]

We hosted an event for Vans. Its was a wear test for the new tnt shoe. Heres some photos i took on the day, it was crazy. a usual saturday would be maybe 10 of us at the most, this was like a skatepark on a busy day full of shredders. two stretch hummers pulled up, we couldnt believe it!

Good times

 

[Bikin Glynn]

Here is a video of the Ballroom in its prime, before it got trashed

(1) Ballroom Sessions - YouTube

Here's a little more to flesh out your timeline of the building.

We found the place abandoned in 2009, There was a security guard & a digger on site so we assumed something was happening. We can came back 6 years later in 2015 & nothing had changed. we skated outside for a while then we checked out the ballroom for the first time. The building had been converted into offices when we found it. there was stud wall cubicles with windows and doors & the whole room was carpeted. From that day me and about 6 other lads ( wycombe locals) spent every weekend and alot of week nights working hard to make it our own DIY skate spot. We had about 4 solid years there with no major problems. we had a verbal deal with the land owner which ment we were allowed on site to maintain a presence so it wouldnt get vandalised as much. We were known by the local police who visited us a handful of times and saw we werent juist kids trashing the place. most of the times they came down we were either cleaning up some minor vandalism or we were building ramps or ledges to skate so they left us to our buisness. There was a groud of around 10 of us who used it frequently but less than half of us actually maintained the place. most weeks their would be windows smashed & glass all over the floor. sometimes people would actually break in and have a go at messing the place up. For a period of about a month over one christmas we had a real bad spell of vandalism from a few lads loosely accociated with a car meet up called ''shutter gang''. In the room next door with the sky lights the local BMXers started building their own spot to ride. When both sides were getting vandalised really bad we formed a whatsapp group chat with everyone in. Every weekend for a month people were coming down at 2 or 3 in the morning and b reakign in with power tools, saws, grinders, sledge hammers etc & wrecking the place. they put many holes in alot of the ramps, Poured cement everywhere, smashed windows & set sofas on fire. Proper dickheads basically. one night a group of us all decided to have a stakeout and catch these bell ends. its was around 2 in the morning and 3 cars pulled up outside the ballroom, they must have spotted us because they all drove away. One of the lads from the bmx side follwed them & managed to take nbote of the car model and number plate. The next day one of us searched facebook to match the car and number plate, eventually we found him. sent him a polite message not to return unless he wants his car ruined. they never returned. We had some bloody good times there. I skated there every weekend for atleast 4 years and hand on heart I never had a bad session.

There is alot more to this story, I apoligise for kind of rambling there for abit. We put a hell of alot of time, effort and our own money into making this place what it was. Its sad to see it in its current state but i only have great memories of the place.

There will be a propper documentry made of our story one day, keep an eye out

Thanks for reading

Ollie Keiderling

Thats a pretty epic home made park well done, such a same but predictable it ended up like it did

 

[RXQueen]

Here is a video of the Ballroom in its prime, before it got trashed

(1) Ballroom Sessions - YouTube

Here's a little more to flesh out your timeline of the building.

We found the place abandoned in 2009, There was a security guard & a digger on site so we assumed something was happening. We can came back 6 years later in 2015 & nothing had changed. we skated outside for a while then we checked out the ballroom for the first time. The building had been converted into offices when we found it. there was stud wall cubicles with windows and doors & the whole room was carpeted. From that day me and about 6 other lads ( wycombe locals) spent every weekend and alot of week nights working hard to make it our own DIY skate spot. We had about 4 solid years there with no major problems. we had a verbal deal with the land owner which ment we were allowed on site to maintain a presence so it wouldnt get vandalised as much. We were known by the local police who visited us a handful of times and saw we werent juist kids trashing the place. most of the times they came down we were either cleaning up some minor vandalism or we were building ramps or ledges to skate so they left us to our buisness. There was a groud of around 10 of us who used it frequently but less than half of us actually maintained the place. most weeks their would be windows smashed & glass all over the floor. sometimes people would actually break in and have a go at messing the place up. For a period of about a month over one christmas we had a real bad spell of vandalism from a few lads loosely accociated with a car meet up called ''shutter gang''. In the room next door with the sky lights the local BMXers started building their own spot to ride. When both sides were getting vandalised really bad we formed a whatsapp group chat with everyone in. Every weekend for a month people were coming down at 2 or 3 in the morning and b reakign in with power tools, saws, grinders, sledge hammers etc & wrecking the place. they put many holes in alot of the ramps, Poured cement everywhere, smashed windows & set sofas on fire. Proper dickheads basically. one night a group of us all decided to have a stakeout and catch these bell ends. its was around 2 in the morning and 3 cars pulled up outside the ballroom, they must have spotted us because they all drove away. One of the lads from the bmx side follwed them & managed to take nbote of the car model and number plate. The next day one of us searched facebook to match the car and number plate, eventually we found him. sent him a polite message not to return unless he wants his car ruined. they never returned. We had some bloody good times there. I skated there every weekend for atleast 4 years and hand on heart I never had a bad session.

There is alot more to this story, I apoligise for kind of rambling there for abit. We put a hell of alot of time, effort and our own money into making this place what it was. Its sad to see it in its current state but i only have great memories of the place.

There will be a propper documentry made of our story one day, keep an eye out

Thanks for reading

Ollie Keiderling

Amazing. Thank you

 

[TheRealDJ]

Our group visited by this place on the way back from another site yesterday, it looks like the full business park has been renovated and the factory is gone.
Interestingly enough there is another unit at the park, next to where Molins factory was, that appears to still be the same company producing Tobacco Machinery

 

[Neurox]

Our group visited by this place on the way back from another site yesterday, it looks like the full business park has been renovated and the factory is gone.
Interestingly enough there is another unit at the park, next to where Molins factory was, that appears to still be the same company producing Tobacco Machinery

I think you went to the wrong place, it's very much still there!