#228 – Robert Fletchers Paper Mill – Part 2

Employees Handbook para (d) Long Service Benefits It is hoped that your association with the Company will be a long one, and that you will qualify for a Long Service Award. After 42 years’ service, men receive a gold watch, and after 37 years’ service, women receive a silver teapot. Big, bad Beloit from Bolton. The room…

#227 – Robert Fletchers Paper Mill – Part 1

Employees Handbook para (b)  Employees’ Transport For the convenience of shift workers arriving and leaving at 6.00a.m., 20.. p..m and 10.00 p.pm. daily, a bus service is operated between Oldham and the Mill, via Lees and Mossley. Employees wishing to avail themselves of this service may obtain from the Time Office particulars of fares charged and the necessary…

#223- Derelict Mills 11 – Oakwood Mill

Some places are so derelict that they aren’t even worth spending much time photographing, let alone trying to find a way in. I’d spotted this place near to the old Railway Warehouse hidden in the woods in Mossley, so after mooching round there for a while, I thought I’d have a look at this place….

#222 – Derelict Mills – Part 10 – Vernon Carus

More often than not, the places I go are dead. Not just as a building, but the companies that inhabited it have also died, along with all the traditions, products and culture that was unique to that enterprise. Technology and commerce move on, budgets shrink, new companies with lower costs come into the market, older companies…

#221 – Derelict Mills – Part 9 – Albion Mill

It’s weird and slightly perverse how some places that I’ve visited have ended up. The ruin that was Cheadle Bleachworks, a place that looked like it had been carpet bombed, ended up as luxury apartments, while this place, as sturdy and intact a mill as I’ve explored, ended up being demolished not long after I…

#220 – Derelict Mills – Part 8 – Griffe Mill

When you are particularly interested in something, you develop a consciousness for it. Professor Peter Wiseman in his brilliant book ‘The Luck Factor’ writes at length about this phenomena, and how people who believe that they are lucky or unlucky see and do things that back up that conviction – spotting five-pound notes on the…

#219 – Derelict Mills – Part 7 Ivy Bank Mill

The diversity of places that I’ve explored has ranged from completely intact places like Pyestock and Fletchers Paper Mill, to stripped out hulks such as Old Lane Mill. But this would suggest that some kind of spectrum of dereliction exists with fully intact at one end and empty shells at the other, when in actual…

#218 – Derelict Mills – Part 6 – Westwood Mill

Sometimes I feel compelled to go and visit places, even if I’m not in the right frame of mind. I’d had my eye on this place for a while, and I needed to visit somewhere to photograph for a nightschool project. Reports on the internet showed it to be pretty stripped out, but with one…

#216 – Derelict Mills – Part 5 – Old Lane Mill

Maybe as late as ten years ago, I’d never have found a place like this. I often use Geograph to search for places, and came across this place in Ovenden, near Halifax. Thanks to the power of the internet, it’s possible to scout for locations without leaving the comfort of your own home. Tools such as…

#215 – Derelict Mills – Part 4 – Edenwood Mill

Success in many fields is all about timing, being in the right place at the right time. Take football. There are numerous players who made decent careers out of not doing a great deal effort wise, but had the seemingly uncanny knack of suddenly coming alive once or twice in a game and ending up…