I had put a report up of this a week to two back but figured it wasn’t adequate for a first report on a site, so a couple more film rolls and visits later, I’ve got a fresher set
Huge credits to the Mossley history group on Facebook for some of these photos and information
History
The Micklehurst loop was developed after heavy traffic on the Stalybridge to Huddersfield caused a lot of issues for the LNWR. The line was finished in 1885 and was designed to take all of the weight of the goods trains off the main track and leave it for the passenger trains, although some passenger trains did use the Micklehurst loop but it was primarily for goods and for transporting railway workers on shunters to their goods yard as told on Facebook from a worker at the disused Millbrook yard. At its peak the line averages around 37 goods trains a day which is huge when you consider the size of these trains. The line contained 4 large goods warehouses along it, all to serve their nearby mills, with the exception of the Millbrook shed used to supply coal for the power station after its construction. These sheds were almost identical in design, which is useful considering that two of them are standing, one at the Plevin’s depot in Mossley, and the other being the Millbrook shed in Stalybridge. The line began to close piece by piece, with each shed becoming redundant to their mills, and the line surviving a couple more years to provide coal and gas for the Hartshead power station until 1979, when the line was fully lifted and all railway structures were demolished outside of these sheds.
The Micklehurst Sidings was sat disused and owned by the LNWR until rented out in 1967. The shed was perfect for usage as the floors were designed to be super strong to handle the weight of coals, as well as having coal drops build next to the tracks, as well as the massive sidings meaning tons of space. These sheds are 3 stories tall with a large open group spaces supported with HUGE girders, multiple trapdoors and hoist mounts in the roof to transport goods between floors, an external hoist on the eastern side and a managerial shed in the northern. The Millbrook shed was actually used by Firth Transport for storage in the 80s, I’m not sure when that became disused
Weldems, founded in 1963, used the land as their main welding workshop, using power from the nearby mills and setting up a large work hall on the southern side of the shed, and an outdoor storage yard on the northern side. The main work hall spanned two ten-ton gantry cranes, as well as a large swing hoist in the side of the workshop. This excellent photo shows the installation of the cranes during the construction of the shed
The site was ready for use in 1967 and was used to create oil tanks for tanker trucks and petrol stations, and was later used to create mining supports and headstocks for collieries, many of these were used in Australia. Reading through stories from this place, their apprenticeships were amazing and it was a great work environment. The company even gave everyone Christmas hampers for the holidays!
The company was bought out in 1994 and the sidings was then purchased by R Plevin’s LTD to be used as one of their depots. I don’t understand what they did at this site as I know Plevin’s was everything from biomass production to wood products, but the huge quantity of sawdust says it was wood production of some kind. Plevin’s continued to use the site until some time last year, where they relocated to the Yorkshire depot and left this site disused. The future for the site isn’t known although with the metal fairies already having their go and leaving doors wide open and gaps in the fences, it won’t be long before kids have their hands at it.
Explore
I visited this place at the start of the year after seeing it on google maps. I had always been interested in the site due to the goods shed further down the line. It was my first explore and I’d always been fascinated at the layout of the shed. So when I saw the Plevin’s site go ‘Permanently Closed’, I couldn’t miss the opportunity to have a mooch.
Considering it was a clearly unknown site, it was the easiest access in the planet. My first couple visits accidentally triggered alarms but since then nothing. It was great though to have a look around, the site was huge and a lot of it seemed straight out of a Time Machine, whereas others looked fresh from a modern space. If you’re in the area absolutely get a visit it, I had a field day there and it’s quite high up in my favourite explores so far
Anyway, here’s the exploring
Some externals. I didn’t take many of the sheet-metal sheds as they’re not the most interesting, but the goods warehouse was fascinating to see
Seeing the original windows on the top floor was also quite cool, to think that these windows have lasted longer than most new-builds nowadays is an incredible. The age really shows though as you could hardly see through them.
Some film shots
Some form of demolition worked seemed to had been happening but just looks like it was left halfway through.
Heading into the furthest structure at the back, there looked to be some giant hoppers of some kind. They’re climbable too, although the grids at the top aren’t very sturdy anymore
And of course, a bit of twattery
In the corner of the room seemed to be some kind of control room, with a large machine at the top and a couple chain hoists.
This building didn’t contain much else unfortunately, so we headed out the side to look at the larger workshop
And my oh my was it a big space. These will be a mix of film and phone camera shots
The space is huge, and mighty dusty. Everything was covered in sawdust and each breath felt very dirty. But thanks to the dust, the lighting was very pretty
Looking back towards the shed, I had found the swing hoist and had a play about with it. Although when I left it out and forgot about it, it made one hell of a bang crashing in
Back towards the front of the shed, the huge silhouette of the structure is very imposing with the lighting
Finding a way up to the crane platform, I managed to get a shot looking back. Comparing it to when it was a Weldems makes one hell of a shot set
Continuing through the side, brings you into a smaller hall. Whist it is empty, the crane rails and a surprise ghost sign made it quite pretty
Continued
