Derelict Delph Mills

A wet Thursday in May. Grey skies and constant drizzle. Perfect day to explore derelict mills. Not! We should have spotted the signs when we drove past our first location - Failsworth Mill - now crawling with workmen on some sort of renovation project. Anyway we ended up in Delph and had a mooch around Bailey's Mill. We didn't actually get in the main building 'cos it involved a lot of climbing and the windows were securely boarded up with metal screens. There was still plenty to look at though.

 

The mill had been built between 1863 and 1871 and was owned by the Mallalieu Family. It was a woollen mill and was in use until January 2000.

 

 

There was the usual enormous chimney, with nature trying to take over.

 

 

 

 

Round the back of the mill. Note the metal screens boarding up the windows.

 

 

 

I was tempted to climb the ladder . . .

 

 

 

 

Bit of graffiti . .

 

 

 

 

Machinery inside the Boiler room . .

 

 

 

 

 

Inside the Weaver's shed . . . Just a shell of a building really.

 

 

 

Graffiti inside the Weaver's shed . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I'm not crazy" . . . a sentiment that I had to remind myself while I was photographing the place in the drizzle!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The usual rusty padlock shot . . .

 

 

And so, having exhausted all possibilities of shots, we crossed the road to the next location. This was Gateshead Mill, used by Saddleworth Yarn Dyers until 2000. Apparently it had been used after that, but for what, I'm not sure.

The problem with this location was the fact that directly opposite is a local joinery company, with plenty of workers in and out of the building and looking at us, curiously from the windows. This stopped us from entering the second building, despite there being an inviting open window.

The one building that we did enter was a small empty warehouse . . .

 

 

 It was pretty grim inside - with an all-pervading smell of damp and dust that got into the back of your throat and lingered.

 

Damp, mouldy walls.

 

 

Unopened mail . . .

 

 

Butterfly caught in one of the many cobwebs . . .

 

Pamphlets turned into pulp from all the rain leaking in . . .

 

Undeterred, we moved on to W.H. Shaw Pallet Works. It looked promising, with a Grade 2 listed building (clock tower) Sadly this was inaccessible and alarmed.

We moved to round the back of the site. Again, next door was in use. The actual palletworks was beyond a yard full of concrete slabs . . .

Having negotiated this rocky landscape and climbed a wall and crawled through several hedges we discovered that this building is far too securely boarded up to gain access!

 

 

 

Our last location turned out to be the biggest disappointment of the day. Royd Mill is now just a heap of bricks, having been recently demolished!!!

It was time to call it a day.

Dronsfield Motors

Dronsfields Mercedes are the largest independent Mercedes car & commercial specialist in Europe.
A Saddleworth company who were originally based at the Wall Hill Mill, a family run business with over 30 years experience in the vehicle maintenance industry. They relocated to Royton in 2009, leaving this site at Wall Hill to decay and rot.

Taken from their website, "The Dobcross site covers 8 acres, which means the company can fulfil customers requirements directly from under one roof. And – being ever conscious of the fragility of the global environment – Dronsfields Mercedes carries out its obligations to future generations by recycling its vehicles to government specifications and beyond".

                                       We visited this site after a look round Hartford Mill.

For some strange reason, there is an abandoned truck on the road going sown from the main road.

 

They were big on signage at Dronsfields. There were signs for just about everything you could imagine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a good look around the outside. It was very peaceful. The only sound was birdsong.

 

 

 

The first door we came upon didn't look very promising.

 

 

 

 

 

Grass growing on the walls.

 

 

A moss-covered chair, rotting outside.

 

 

 

 

A fire escape leading to a dead end.

 

 

Spider's web.

 

We found an open door and ventured inside.

I like derelict buildings. I like their emptiness. Their history. I like finding beauty in the dereliction. However, this interior had to be the most trashed place I have yet visited. It was completely and utterly trashed. The stench of damp and decay hit you as soon as you entered. The holes in the roof and copious amounts of Saddleworth rain have turned this place into a stinking sopping wet shell of a building.

 

 

The 2009 wall calendar, showing how long this place has been abandoned.

 

 

 

 

The offices (I presume?) Roofing insulation hanging from the ceilings. Trash all over the flooring.

 

 

A nice bit of peeling paint.

 

 

In short, it really was a health-hazard so we decided to leave.