Broadford works is an factory compound near Aberdeen city centre. Owned by Richards of Aberdeen - a local textiles firm - Broadford was the base for their work, mainly spinning yarn, wool and carpet making.
The first building on site was erected in 1808, and still stands today as the oldest iron framed mill in Scotland, with newer buildings being built or added to existing structures as needed throughout Broadfords working life. Because of this the materials and construction styles are a bit of a jumbled mess, with a mix of granite (the local delicacy) and red brick buildings, lots of cobbles, and a rather odd layout at times. Some buildings standing alone, some with newer additions and extensions and odd connecting bridges between other bits and no coherent layout (to us explorers - in use the buildings probably related to each other a lot better than they do now standing empty, and were easy enough to navigate).
Nowadays Broadford works stands empty, Richards sold up in 2002, passing the works on to a developer as a going concern, who later decided to stop work in 2004 and redevelop the site as housing. This is still in limbo, with plans being put forwards to the council that were rejected (through not having enough affordable housing) with revisions and so on still ongoing which leaves Broadford in its current state - all work has stopped and all the machinery has been removed, but with a lot of evidence remaining of its past life.
Today I finally got to visit Broadford, giving in to the intrigue and interest after getting to see the towers through the intervening buildings on my bus journey to university every day. Todays visit was with the honourable Mr Fish (as far as I know not a member here, though I will be directing him to this thread) and Alair147 was also pencilled in for a visit, but was unable to come along due to car trouble - We will definatly be going back to which you already have the invitation
- The six hours we were inside didn't give us nearly enough time to get around all the buildings on site, and that dosent count all the bits I want to go back a revisit.
I will say sorry in advance that I lost track of the buildings as we wandered around them, we started with a nice plan of action to have a quick look through this bit, then x, y and z buildings, only we got waylaid slightly with other interesting finds and new routes taking us to previously uncharted territory and a much more roundabout and less organised tour. So from that this will probably be more the sights and features as we explored, and a general look throughout the works rather than a building by building documentary. That will have to wait for another visit...
On with the photos...
The outside around the granite building and surroundings.
Inside some of the single story buildings on the edge of the site
Further around the perimeter, slightly larger buildings of a couple of stories, and some large pressure rooms (to do with spinning/cleaning/separating the yarns) and the roof space above.
Looking out one of the perimeter windows
The required chair shot...
Looking down between buildings again
Inside one of the red brick mills, the largest of the mills on site.
The workshop floors, I wish I could have seen this in action, full of machinery and people busy at work, now sitting empty with only odd piles of leftovers and rubbish leftover from work. Amusingly someone else seems to have been in and managed to create a nice big spiders web out of some of the thread sitting about. Much more amusing than the expected broken glass (a chunk of which I managed to step on directly after getting inside the compound and put stright through the sole of my shoe - a nice wee delay for us while we got some plasters and patched up my foot) and graffiti.
Up at the very top of the building, there is a solitary room, full of boxes and boxes full of samples of all the different colours and types of wools and yarns.
Just above the room of boxes, you can get onto the roof next to the room with the lift machinery in it, the highest point in Broadford next to the two towers (which have been climbed, just not by us) and a great view out over Aberdeen
It was at this point we found another explorer, who appeared out of the door onto the roof, saw me in hi-viz and got the fright of his life, which was about the same reaction as my fellow explorer when someone burst out unexpectedly of what we had though a completely empty building. At this point I was facing away and didn't hear anything, until I turned round and counted twice as many people being there as there were before... Thankfully someone else out to get some pictures, so after the usual greetings and chat we left him to continue the explore.
Continued in post two...
The first building on site was erected in 1808, and still stands today as the oldest iron framed mill in Scotland, with newer buildings being built or added to existing structures as needed throughout Broadfords working life. Because of this the materials and construction styles are a bit of a jumbled mess, with a mix of granite (the local delicacy) and red brick buildings, lots of cobbles, and a rather odd layout at times. Some buildings standing alone, some with newer additions and extensions and odd connecting bridges between other bits and no coherent layout (to us explorers - in use the buildings probably related to each other a lot better than they do now standing empty, and were easy enough to navigate).
Nowadays Broadford works stands empty, Richards sold up in 2002, passing the works on to a developer as a going concern, who later decided to stop work in 2004 and redevelop the site as housing. This is still in limbo, with plans being put forwards to the council that were rejected (through not having enough affordable housing) with revisions and so on still ongoing which leaves Broadford in its current state - all work has stopped and all the machinery has been removed, but with a lot of evidence remaining of its past life.
Today I finally got to visit Broadford, giving in to the intrigue and interest after getting to see the towers through the intervening buildings on my bus journey to university every day. Todays visit was with the honourable Mr Fish (as far as I know not a member here, though I will be directing him to this thread) and Alair147 was also pencilled in for a visit, but was unable to come along due to car trouble - We will definatly be going back to which you already have the invitation
- The six hours we were inside didn't give us nearly enough time to get around all the buildings on site, and that dosent count all the bits I want to go back a revisit.I will say sorry in advance that I lost track of the buildings as we wandered around them, we started with a nice plan of action to have a quick look through this bit, then x, y and z buildings, only we got waylaid slightly with other interesting finds and new routes taking us to previously uncharted territory and a much more roundabout and less organised tour. So from that this will probably be more the sights and features as we explored, and a general look throughout the works rather than a building by building documentary. That will have to wait for another visit...
On with the photos...
The outside around the granite building and surroundings.
Inside some of the single story buildings on the edge of the site
Further around the perimeter, slightly larger buildings of a couple of stories, and some large pressure rooms (to do with spinning/cleaning/separating the yarns) and the roof space above.
Looking out one of the perimeter windows
The required chair shot...
Looking down between buildings again
Inside one of the red brick mills, the largest of the mills on site.
The workshop floors, I wish I could have seen this in action, full of machinery and people busy at work, now sitting empty with only odd piles of leftovers and rubbish leftover from work. Amusingly someone else seems to have been in and managed to create a nice big spiders web out of some of the thread sitting about. Much more amusing than the expected broken glass (a chunk of which I managed to step on directly after getting inside the compound and put stright through the sole of my shoe - a nice wee delay for us while we got some plasters and patched up my foot) and graffiti.
Up at the very top of the building, there is a solitary room, full of boxes and boxes full of samples of all the different colours and types of wools and yarns.
Just above the room of boxes, you can get onto the roof next to the room with the lift machinery in it, the highest point in Broadford next to the two towers (which have been climbed, just not by us) and a great view out over Aberdeen
It was at this point we found another explorer, who appeared out of the door onto the roof, saw me in hi-viz and got the fright of his life, which was about the same reaction as my fellow explorer when someone burst out unexpectedly of what we had though a completely empty building. At this point I was facing away and didn't hear anything, until I turned round and counted twice as many people being there as there were before... Thankfully someone else out to get some pictures, so after the usual greetings and chat we left him to continue the explore.
Continued in post two...
