St John’s Works
I stumbled across this place really, and while it’s not the most exciting explore I’ve ever done, sometimes I feel it’s good to offer up something new.
As far as I can see it’s not been covered on here before.
So after entertaining ourselves for a few hours down at Castlebridge Colliery my co-explorer and I head for Fife… and the picturesque conservation village of Falkland is rather dominated from afar by this collection of factory buildings:
Originally brick built around 1919, St John’s Works made floor cloth for the Scottish Wholesale Cooperative Society.
The later concrete framed section was added in 1933 and is architecturally reminiscent of Glasgow’s Gray Dunn & Co biscuit factory.
Most recently the works were adapted by the Smith Anderson Group and used for the production of paper bags, until they consolidated their operation and left the property in 2013 after 45 years.
Although a listing application is pending, complete demolition has been approved by Fife Council who see the site as prime brownfield development space, and the factory’s removal from the skyline as beneficial to their conservation area image.
It’s rather a frustrating place to explore in many ways – there seemed to be a dead end at every turn, each bit necessitated a different access point, parts of it were pitch black, parts of it weren’t accessible at all. And swathes of it were just empty. But there were some interesting things to see…
I can’t work this one out – on the face of it you’d think the sign writer just couldn’t spell, but then the correct spelling is visible underneath and has been painted over!
Some of the signage provided a nice nod to the old linoleum days – names being kept even where the purpose of the building had changed.
The Old Stoves was a tall building used to stretch the backing fabric during the production process…
Our first foray into the buildings themselves presented a rather nice Blackstone engine…
Venturing into other buildings presented little to rival this, but still it threw up some interesting bits and pieces.
Another dead end loomed so back outside we went and into the ink stores – still full of cans of many colours…
Yet more buildings appeared, some involved a bit of a climb but frustratingly had little reward within them.
This one was pitch black inside on all levels but it was full of old machinery:
And finally another almost empty warehouse – complete with spilled glue all over the floor:
And that’s about the size of it. Worth taking a look if you’re in the area.
Thanks for stopping by
.
I stumbled across this place really, and while it’s not the most exciting explore I’ve ever done, sometimes I feel it’s good to offer up something new.
As far as I can see it’s not been covered on here before.
So after entertaining ourselves for a few hours down at Castlebridge Colliery my co-explorer and I head for Fife… and the picturesque conservation village of Falkland is rather dominated from afar by this collection of factory buildings:
Originally brick built around 1919, St John’s Works made floor cloth for the Scottish Wholesale Cooperative Society.
The later concrete framed section was added in 1933 and is architecturally reminiscent of Glasgow’s Gray Dunn & Co biscuit factory.
Most recently the works were adapted by the Smith Anderson Group and used for the production of paper bags, until they consolidated their operation and left the property in 2013 after 45 years.
Although a listing application is pending, complete demolition has been approved by Fife Council who see the site as prime brownfield development space, and the factory’s removal from the skyline as beneficial to their conservation area image.
It’s rather a frustrating place to explore in many ways – there seemed to be a dead end at every turn, each bit necessitated a different access point, parts of it were pitch black, parts of it weren’t accessible at all. And swathes of it were just empty. But there were some interesting things to see…
I can’t work this one out – on the face of it you’d think the sign writer just couldn’t spell, but then the correct spelling is visible underneath and has been painted over!
Some of the signage provided a nice nod to the old linoleum days – names being kept even where the purpose of the building had changed.
The Old Stoves was a tall building used to stretch the backing fabric during the production process…
Our first foray into the buildings themselves presented a rather nice Blackstone engine…
Venturing into other buildings presented little to rival this, but still it threw up some interesting bits and pieces.
Another dead end loomed so back outside we went and into the ink stores – still full of cans of many colours…
Yet more buildings appeared, some involved a bit of a climb but frustratingly had little reward within them.
This one was pitch black inside on all levels but it was full of old machinery:
And finally another almost empty warehouse – complete with spilled glue all over the floor:
And that’s about the size of it. Worth taking a look if you’re in the area.
Thanks for stopping by
.
