A great local explore here, a huge paper mill shut for 27 years.
In terms of history, it really doesn't get any better than this comment from Mark Stores, somebody who actually worked there:
A photo of the active site can be seen on this Flickr page with the following quote from member Gordon Edgar:
THE EXPLORE:
An icy cold day in the Port, myself and CheesyKennita found out about the Mill when we looking for another explore on Mount Mannisty that seems to be no longer accessible. We'd stumbled upon the abandoned cafe around the corner from the Mill a week earlier, snapped some shots and made our way to another explore, completely oblivious to the fact that only through the trees at the side of that road there was a huge Paper Mill waiting for us to explore! Once we discovered our little blunder we set out a week later to explore the place in the icy conditions. We found the whole site to be relatively peaceful, with only the odd lorry coming and going to nearby sites and seemingly no eyes on us as we made our entrance.
I'd seen 2 previous reports on this place (I believe there's 3 altogether ranging from roughly 2019 to late last year), but I wasn't prepared for just how open this place was and just how quiet it all felt. You could easily fit an entire football pitch on the main factory floor if it wasn't for the concrete and steel pillars evenly strewn about with the huge piles of salt that are now stored here, probably to be forgotten judging by the state of some of them.
Honestly my photos don't really do it justice, I'm not a bad photographer and my Panasonic G90 does me alright, but I SERIOUSLY need a dedicated wide angle lens for places like this (I got some fisheye later on so keep scrolling if you like shit like that!) We started at the back end of the factory on the east side and decided to go clockwise around the perimeter of the mill to see everything.
Whilst appreciating the contrast of vibrant orange paint and grayish decay, Cheesy went ahead toward the metal stairs up to a mostly empty office. Now would be a great time to let anyone wishing to visit know that this place is FULL of broken glass everywhere, I say it now because they were on every single step leading up to this office and making noise was unavoidable. Quite a problem when there's still an active factory behind here, separated only by an alleyway!
Cheesy is a fair few years younger than me so I had to explain to him the magic of Virgin Cola 😅
Still on the south side of the factory, Cheesy climbed up to a platform to scout and see if it was worth it for me (by far the least athletic of the two of us) to make the climb also. He found a tool chest with some interesting tools but decided not to actually document it in any way (he's learning slowly I promise!)
Another platform was accessible only by a risky climb and the way down was cushioned by a conveniently placed couch, the large amount of glass on it though was enough to deter Cheesy from a second climb and the area (which would have been accessible via a lift when the factory was still open) went unexplored.
Whilst Cheesy snooped around upstairs I quickly stuck my fisheye lens on.
Moving on to the southwest, the front of the building and we began to explore the offices and staff areas of the mill. We decided to go straight through all of these, weaving upstairs and downstairs when appropriate. This would take us all the way out to the north end of the building.
The overgrowth is so wonderful here, it contrasts beautifully with the man-made structures and it's stunning how well it's complemented by the decay of paint/wallpaper peeling and debris. It would probably sound a bit odd to someone outside of this hobby, but seeing things like this are what makes it so worthwhile for me.
The only downside to this overgrowth was that we didn't dare step foot in any of these offices, the floors were not likely to be wholly there underneath the moss and foliage. We were perfectly content to look in from the outside and snap photos as we went.
The collapsed roof exposes some of the offices to the elements. We didn't stick around in this particular area for long for the reasons that the flooring was quite sus around here and also we had spooked a few pigeons so much that they were flying in to the windows face first in panic. My old man's a pigeon flyer and I don't like to see them harmed so we left them in peace!
We moved on to a small infirmary and staff room, complete with cafe and large toilets before heading back out on to the factory floor for the final corner of the explore.
Among the interesting sights were tins of cat food that didn't look all that old, a copy of The Daily Sport from October 1997 (complete with vintage titties) and a recent pen drawing of a certain Austrian dictator which I won't share here to avoid the risk of being booted. This was actually the only graffiti of any kind we saw, barring an urbex tag in the infirmary, a pleasant surprise to say the least!
The final leg of the explore was at the north and north east end of the mill and was a lot more photogenic due to the morning sun hitting the angles dramatically due to the building's unique windows.
I've only done a handful of explores so far but this was definitely my favourite, Cheesy also ranking this top. I just love these open places with little pressure that allow you to just have a relaxed explore and photo sesh, it gives you a lot of time to soak that atmosphere in and try to imagine what it must have been like to work here on the daily in the site's heyday. Quite a bittersweet feeling though when you snap out of it and come to see the vast emptiness before you standing completely still and quiet.
Only drawbacks were how slippy certain areas were due to mossy sludge patches and the glass made careful footing essential to avoid making noise. Other than that, a solid explore and I'd happily return for more!
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