Having driven past this site a few times and as the old Co-Op dairy in Drayton had been demolished I decided to make this my first documented explore.
There doesn’t seem to be any history behind this site that I can find, there was a sign on the substation for ‘Wildern Flour Mill’ so I can only assume this was its original use. The sites latest incarnation was as a feed mill for Dukes & Botley, manufacturing two lines of animal feed (which smells absolutely rank when it’s been stood for years!) and it has been closed since at least 2006. There have been plans to build a large number of flats on the site but so far these have come to nothing.
Access to the site was relatively easy (even for a newb like me!) and I could have gotten inside the mill; however I would have needed a leg-up to get out again and as I happened to be alone this wasn’t an option. The best that I managed was sticking my hand in through a hole in the cladding and taking a picture – I got one leg through said hole up to the hip and decided that I didn’t really want the fire brigade in attendance on my first outing
. As an aside I take my hat off to the guys responsible for securing this place – never have so may nails been put to such a frustrating use! Oh, and I swear I could’ve saddled some of the rats on this site .
Anyhoo, let’s don hi-vis and a hard hat and get on with the pictures:
View from back of the site; feed hoppers, weighbridge and loading-thingy straight ahead, discharge hopper and feed silo to the right.
Hmmmm, 16000 litres of animal fat. I think I’ll pass.
Loading-thingy!
Hell, if I’m going to trespass I may as well make it look good!
So. not as much cool equipment as I had hoped but nonetheless an enjoyable way to spend an evening.
As always pointers and constructive criticism are welcome.
Dan
There doesn’t seem to be any history behind this site that I can find, there was a sign on the substation for ‘Wildern Flour Mill’ so I can only assume this was its original use. The sites latest incarnation was as a feed mill for Dukes & Botley, manufacturing two lines of animal feed (which smells absolutely rank when it’s been stood for years!) and it has been closed since at least 2006. There have been plans to build a large number of flats on the site but so far these have come to nothing.
Access to the site was relatively easy (even for a newb like me!) and I could have gotten inside the mill; however I would have needed a leg-up to get out again and as I happened to be alone this wasn’t an option. The best that I managed was sticking my hand in through a hole in the cladding and taking a picture – I got one leg through said hole up to the hip and decided that I didn’t really want the fire brigade in attendance on my first outing
. As an aside I take my hat off to the guys responsible for securing this place – never have so may nails been put to such a frustrating use! Oh, and I swear I could’ve saddled some of the rats on this site .Anyhoo, let’s don hi-vis and a hard hat and get on with the pictures:
View from back of the site; feed hoppers, weighbridge and loading-thingy straight ahead, discharge hopper and feed silo to the right.
Hmmmm, 16000 litres of animal fat. I think I’ll pass.
Loading-thingy!
Hell, if I’m going to trespass I may as well make it look good!
So. not as much cool equipment as I had hoped but nonetheless an enjoyable way to spend an evening.
As always pointers and constructive criticism are welcome
.Dan
Last edited by a moderator:
