The History ( stolen from @Maniac)
Paper has been manufactured on the Aylesford Newsprint site since 1922, formerly under the name of Aylesford Paper Mill and later by the name Aylesford Newsprint. The entire area has a history which revolved around the paper and packaging industry for decades, but this has been in steep decline in the last 20 years or so. The plant at Aylesford was the last remaining part of this industry in this area, but it has now ceased to be a viable business and has been closed since March 2015.
Aylesford Newsprint was a long-established major employer in the area and was the largest paper recycling factory in Europe, manufacturing newsprint for the newspaper industry mainly for the London press. The mill was heavily modernised in the 1990's with millions of pounds spent on a state of the art warehousing system and significant new production equipment which is what you see today.
When it closed, the mill employed 230 people and produced more than 400,000 tons of newsprint from 500,000 tons of recycled paper every year.
It’s been a year since the production line at Aylesford Newsprint came to a halt – the dormant chimneys a sad reminder of the loss of one of Kent’s oldest paper mills.
Now the firm in charge of selling off the company’s assets has announced the building is expected to be demolished by the summer of next year.
The three options being presented by property consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH), which is acting on behalf of administrators KPMG, include one which looks at keeping the area for industrial use. The two other ideas are for a mix of commerce and housing. Option 2 would include between 350 to 400 homes whileOption 3 has a larger proportion of residential use, at up to 500 homes.
The Explore
After seeing a few reports on this, I kinda fancied it but just hadn’t got around to it, you know how it is sometimes. @oakley, @slayaaaa & @mrstewie had been for a nose a week or so before and myself and Oakley decided to head back for another look one Sunday afternoon.
Access was pretty easy although we had to keep our eyes open for the security guys.
Once inside we had a pretty chilled explore, although it was quite sad to see that most of the equipment and machinery had been and was in the process of being torn out. After seeing others reports it was a shame not to get to see the epicness that was there when @Maniac first reported it, but it was interesting to see it in the process of full decommissioning.
It was however nice to get to see the labs and the R&D department as this side of it was also very interesting.
The site had pretty much full power over it so it made for a good mooch, It was surprising to see what was left and what still worked.
After a fair few hours in there we spotted secca doing their rounds and decided it was time for us to leave.
Enjoy the pics sorry there are so many lol
View attachment 698738
Paper has been manufactured on the Aylesford Newsprint site since 1922, formerly under the name of Aylesford Paper Mill and later by the name Aylesford Newsprint. The entire area has a history which revolved around the paper and packaging industry for decades, but this has been in steep decline in the last 20 years or so. The plant at Aylesford was the last remaining part of this industry in this area, but it has now ceased to be a viable business and has been closed since March 2015.
Aylesford Newsprint was a long-established major employer in the area and was the largest paper recycling factory in Europe, manufacturing newsprint for the newspaper industry mainly for the London press. The mill was heavily modernised in the 1990's with millions of pounds spent on a state of the art warehousing system and significant new production equipment which is what you see today.
When it closed, the mill employed 230 people and produced more than 400,000 tons of newsprint from 500,000 tons of recycled paper every year.
It’s been a year since the production line at Aylesford Newsprint came to a halt – the dormant chimneys a sad reminder of the loss of one of Kent’s oldest paper mills.
Now the firm in charge of selling off the company’s assets has announced the building is expected to be demolished by the summer of next year.
The three options being presented by property consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH), which is acting on behalf of administrators KPMG, include one which looks at keeping the area for industrial use. The two other ideas are for a mix of commerce and housing. Option 2 would include between 350 to 400 homes whileOption 3 has a larger proportion of residential use, at up to 500 homes.
The Explore
After seeing a few reports on this, I kinda fancied it but just hadn’t got around to it, you know how it is sometimes. @oakley, @slayaaaa & @mrstewie had been for a nose a week or so before and myself and Oakley decided to head back for another look one Sunday afternoon.
Access was pretty easy although we had to keep our eyes open for the security guys.
Once inside we had a pretty chilled explore, although it was quite sad to see that most of the equipment and machinery had been and was in the process of being torn out. After seeing others reports it was a shame not to get to see the epicness that was there when @Maniac first reported it, but it was interesting to see it in the process of full decommissioning.
It was however nice to get to see the labs and the R&D department as this side of it was also very interesting.
The site had pretty much full power over it so it made for a good mooch, It was surprising to see what was left and what still worked.
After a fair few hours in there we spotted secca doing their rounds and decided it was time for us to leave.
Enjoy the pics sorry there are so many lol
View attachment 698738
