Clog Factory

Urbexing is like waiting for a bus . . . nothing comes along for ages and then you get two explores in one day! After Williamsons' we headed into Yorkshire to visit a former clog factory/ tourist attraction, now closed down of course! The large mill building first started off as a clog factory, in 1946. It later became a tourist attraction but fell on hard times, as well as suffering from a large fire in the mid 1990s. The family business sold the site and planning was passed for an apartment block conversion in 2006 but the site remains as it was. And what a place this was - step inside and be prepared for the clog factory experience!
 
 

 

 

 

Well first impressions were not promising, but then I saw this amazing spinning loom!

 

 

 

 

 

There was more impressive machinery on the ground floor. Unfortunately, one of the rooms was particularly dark but had an incredible steam machine.

 

 

 

 

 

There was also a pitch black haunted house entered via a coffin shaped doorway . . . complete with aliens too scary to show!

 

 

Clog posters seemed to be everywhere, for the hard-sell approach.

 

 

 

Upstairs, where there were more machines . . .

 

 

 

There was also an enchanted forest and play area for children, complete with slides and ball pool.

 

 

A further floor up contained a café, changing rooms for trying on clothes, and copious amounts of pigeon poo! I found a dead pigeon lying on a mannequin's leg.

 

 

 

There's always a trashed room with a solitary chair placed in it and this was no exception.

 

 

But you don't always find an antique baby's pram . . .

 

 

There were several hundred copies of this booklet, most of which were turning to pulp from the leaks!

 

 

It just got weirder and weirder

 

 

Then I found the office in the usual state of disarray, with papers strewn everywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 This was supposed to be some sort of bee which belonged to a weird bee hive structure.

 

 

 

 

 

 It was time to go. I'd breathed in enough pigeon poo fumes and my camera battery had taken a battering with all the dark shots. I really loved this place for its wackiness although it wouldn't have been my idea of a good day out when it was operating as intended.

 

Williamson's

Second time lucky on this one . . last time we were foiled by a locked door and no way in! I visited with Fragglehunter, Judderman and Evilnoodle. This family business opened in 1920, specialising in fire and safety equipment and closed around 2011. It was a building full of history, with stables at the back, some beautiful art nouveau tiling and years' worth of peeling paint upstairs!

 

 

 

The building was very dark in places but in the main work room the sun was just about managing to peek its way in through the filthy windows, accompanied by the steady dripping from the leaky roof.

 

 

 

The stables were almost pitch black and I wasn't happy with my shots, which was a pity.

Just through from the stables was quite a light work room.

 

 

 

There were lots of little hand-written signs and notes around the place, giving it a real old-fashioned family business feel and all the more sad for its demise.

 

 

 

 

I had an explore up the metal staircase to a storage area, full of scaffolding and shelving. There were huge holes in the roof so there were plenty of puddles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back towards the entrance were lots of little offices, a kitchen and storage areas.

 

 

 

 

There were several wooden staircases, leading to upstairs rooms and even a basement. One of the staircases lead to what seemed like old bedrooms, complete with torn out fireplaces, old fashioned light switches and decades worth of peeling paint and wallpaper with the exposed brickwork in places.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of my favourite rooms contained just two wooden ladders and fantastic textured peeling paint.

 

 

back downstairs, I found an office crammed with papers, tools, nuts and spanners, a typewriter, filing cabinets and even blank cheques!

 

 

 

 

 

It was one of those places where it seemed like the owners just shut up shop and didn't even bother to take anything with them. It never fails to amaze me that this happens so often.

 

 

 

 

 

 Through this office was a little corridor with the beautiful art nouveau tiles.

 

 

There were obvious signs of others having also explored  the place. Sadly, it was quite trashed in places. I think this scrawled message on the office wall sums it all up.

 

 

I really enjoyed this explore, as there was so much to see but also sad to think of it all being demolished and lost forever.