Report - Frostholme Mill (Cornholme, West Yorkshire, Dec, 2019)

[urbanchemist]

Drove past this after Christmas and had a quick once round.

The sign on the front said it was a furniture manufacturer so I was expecting leftover chairs etc.

What I wasn’t expecting was the remains of a large weed farm - more details about this at https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/local-news/police-find-cannabis-farm-2700-18451999.


Brief Background. There’s plenty of information online about the building, which was originally (1860) a cotton mill.

The four storey roadside section dates from 1896 and once housed a 900 bhp steam engine which powered the works by a rope pulley system, all dismantled in 1960.

There used to be weaving sheds at the rear, later used for furniture manufacture, which were demolished a few years ago.

The most recent firm operating from the mill was Sutcliffe Furniture which closed in 2011 and the machinery was auctioned off.

Pictures are ordered from the (partial) basement up.

Strongroom containing a safe.

Lots of lamps and sacks of grow pellets.

Diesel generator.

Lift electrics and the boiler room - it sounded like something was still running in there.

Second floor with canteen at the end.

Don’t you hate it when things are ‘arranged’.

Ducting from weed plants going into the sawdust extraction system - should’ve plumbed them into the main chimney.

View of part of Cornholme and the Calder Valley.

 

[Calamity Jane]

Rather nice mill. Huge place. Nice set there. As a bed base is there, I presume there was a live in gardener! massive grow to look after there. Nice looking build too.

 

[dave]

Good to see a mill these days they seem to be getting a little less common now, enjoyed this great report and pics as usual.

 

[urbanchemist]

Good to see a mill these days they seem to be getting a little less common now, enjoyed this great report and pics as usual.

There aren't many unexplored ones left - this area like many of the valleys in this part of the world once had a whole bunch of cotton (and some bobbin) mills, mostly demolished now.

 

[Jane Doe]

Thats really nice ..great set of photos

 

[Down and beyond]

Cracking report as always

 

[dweeb]

Not too shabby! Looks worth a rummage in that basement!

 

[urbanchemist]

Not too shabby! Looks worth a rummage in that basement!

Odd layout down there - felt like the bottom of an engine house or maybe part of the rope race.

 

[Ferox]

Bloody good that mate. Nice pics

 

[HughieD]

Wow. Another fab report. That grow was going to be a biggie, wasn't it? And was until they got grassed-up (sorry!). Can see why you didn't post this one at the time!

 

[urbanchemist]

Wow. Another fab report. That grow was going to be a biggie, wasn't it? And was until they got grassed-up (sorry!). Can see why you didn't post this one at the time!

Actually I got the date wrong - it was this xmas - the grow was apparently busted last summer sometime.

 

[waveydave]

Liking this a lot!

 

[KPUrban_]

That's rather nice actually, some nice surviving features in there.

 

[tweek]

Some interesting spaces there. Top work as per.

 

[torygenocide]

Hello, as someone who’s been inside this factory before i shall give a brief explanation of the floors. Floor Zero is an almost completely pitch black level as it has near to no windows, a set of grow pots can be found here with piles of empty and full grow bags. The first floor is where most people can get in but it involves a good set of climbing skills and being unseen to get in. This is the canteen floor and it is either this one or the bottom floor where a large engine can be found. There’s also a set of grow pots on this floor. I didn’t explore floor 2 as it stated there was toxic glue on this floor and i didn’t have the correct equipment for that and i didn’t want to risk it.
The Third floor is a set of broken, eerie offices with a bedroom and a fridge filled with disgusting pieces of ‘food’ can be found. The roof floor you can access climbing the metal stairs connected to the third floor stairs. You cannot really explore most of this floor as there isn’t much platform to stand on and my friend fell through the roof on this floor but happily he is alive. You get a great view of the area from here.

Pictures of the grow pots (one of them i don’t remember which floor it’s was on):