Been a while! a thread on Yew Tree got bumped earlier and it reminded me I never did get around to posting my photos from here. Tweek and Eric did get some photos up but I think we managed to see different bits to them. I was intending to go back and finish the site off before I did a report but last few times I've been its not really been possible.
This was another one of those Bradford mills we would always go check out after a night on the town with the locals but inevitably with hangover in tow and little confidence exactly what was going on with the place we would always go away thinking 'give it a few more months and see if anything changes'.. Unfortunately Covid got in the way of that and before we knew it it had been best part of two years since we had checked it out. You can imagine our annoyance when a news article appears in the local rag with photos of inside and it looked bloody mega, whole floor of vintage looms! We decided Covid restriction or no Covid restrictions this one was too good to pass up and hopped into the car to Bradford early on Sunday morning. Arriving early doors we had a quick scout and couldn't see anyone on site. Just an ominous big skip and cute little kennel straight out of a cartoon.. Kennel had to be a decoy I thought so after a few rattles of the gate and no appearance of any kind of hound me and Dweeb hopped the wall and headed inside pretty easily..
Sadly it turned out we were too late for the loom floor, we later found out the photos in the paper were from a permission visit organised by the council some time beforehand, not an explorer 'selling out' as we had assumed. Stripping of that area was already well on its way, a disappointment but not completely unexpected I must say.
Things did start to take a turn for the worse when I took a glance out of the window only to see a bloody big Alsatian had appeared in the yard we had just crossed! Im guessing he must have be sound asleep when we arrived. We started to deliberate how we were going to get out again, half expecting workers to turn up and now with a dog gauntlet to run as well! The worry was shorted live however when on one of my anxious glances out of the windows I spotted some 'youths' outside the fence who seemed to be pacing up and down in a telling manner. I called Dweeb over and we watched as eventually one plucked up the courage to climb the wall. Poor lad got half way across the courtyard only to make a swift retreat when he spotted old Rover doing his patrol!! Hilarious (for us)!
With no easy way out we pressed on with the explore and I must say even without looms the mill turned out to be well worth the effort. Not so much a mill of aesthetically pleasing spaces. More a mill of EPIC STUFF EVERYWHERE! we made our way through room after room with drawers and cupboards all rammed with ancient toot! Just how we like it! Part of the mill is still in use as a 2nd hand furniture warehouse, which of course the fringes of blur somewhat with what is derelict but we managed to keep out the way. Annoyingly we only seemed to be able to access half the building but after finding a openable door that bypassed doggos yard we didn't hang around to o much longer and made our escape back to Birmingham..
If your interested Hield is a fairly famous a worsted manufacturer founded in 1922 and with close links to the royal family and other posh clients. I believe they are still going on another probably much more modern premises. As far as I know their old mill still sits derelict!
Doggo and youths
This was another one of those Bradford mills we would always go check out after a night on the town with the locals but inevitably with hangover in tow and little confidence exactly what was going on with the place we would always go away thinking 'give it a few more months and see if anything changes'.. Unfortunately Covid got in the way of that and before we knew it it had been best part of two years since we had checked it out. You can imagine our annoyance when a news article appears in the local rag with photos of inside and it looked bloody mega, whole floor of vintage looms! We decided Covid restriction or no Covid restrictions this one was too good to pass up and hopped into the car to Bradford early on Sunday morning. Arriving early doors we had a quick scout and couldn't see anyone on site. Just an ominous big skip and cute little kennel straight out of a cartoon.. Kennel had to be a decoy I thought so after a few rattles of the gate and no appearance of any kind of hound me and Dweeb hopped the wall and headed inside pretty easily..
Sadly it turned out we were too late for the loom floor, we later found out the photos in the paper were from a permission visit organised by the council some time beforehand, not an explorer 'selling out' as we had assumed. Stripping of that area was already well on its way, a disappointment but not completely unexpected I must say.
Things did start to take a turn for the worse when I took a glance out of the window only to see a bloody big Alsatian had appeared in the yard we had just crossed! Im guessing he must have be sound asleep when we arrived. We started to deliberate how we were going to get out again, half expecting workers to turn up and now with a dog gauntlet to run as well! The worry was shorted live however when on one of my anxious glances out of the windows I spotted some 'youths' outside the fence who seemed to be pacing up and down in a telling manner. I called Dweeb over and we watched as eventually one plucked up the courage to climb the wall. Poor lad got half way across the courtyard only to make a swift retreat when he spotted old Rover doing his patrol!! Hilarious (for us)!
With no easy way out we pressed on with the explore and I must say even without looms the mill turned out to be well worth the effort. Not so much a mill of aesthetically pleasing spaces. More a mill of EPIC STUFF EVERYWHERE! we made our way through room after room with drawers and cupboards all rammed with ancient toot! Just how we like it! Part of the mill is still in use as a 2nd hand furniture warehouse, which of course the fringes of blur somewhat with what is derelict but we managed to keep out the way. Annoyingly we only seemed to be able to access half the building but after finding a openable door that bypassed doggos yard we didn't hang around to o much longer and made our escape back to Birmingham..
If your interested Hield is a fairly famous a worsted manufacturer founded in 1922 and with close links to the royal family and other posh clients. I believe they are still going on another probably much more modern premises. As far as I know their old mill still sits derelict!
Doggo and youths
