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Report - - Newsome Mills, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, April 2019 | Industrial Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Newsome Mills, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, April 2019

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HughieD

28DL Regular User
Regular User
1. The History
The four-storey mill sits (or rather sat) at the heart of Newsome, both from geographically and historically perspective. The village grew up around the mill and was the main local employer for many years and a number of families living in Newsome have a direct relationship with the mill.

In terms of time lines, the first woollen mill at Newsome was founded by John Taylor back in 1827.The building burnt-down in 1872 (a trend will emerge here!) and in 1873 Ephraim Beaumont Taylor and Joshua Littlewood went into partnership (as Taylor & Littlewood) and operated a worsted mill (a high-quality type of wool yarn). The current mill buildings were constructed around the mid-1870s and by 1893 occupied the whole block and included an integrated mill, weaving sheds, clock tower along with ancillary and administrative buildings. All cloth manufacturing processes were carried out on the site, starting with raw wool and ending with the production of fine worsteds. There were 200 looms and 600 employees making trousers, coats and woollen goods.

Two archive pictures of the mill in its full glory:

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Newsome Mill Aerial by HughieDW, on Flickr

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Newsome Mills Composite by HughieDW, on Flickr

Such were the mills architectural merits that it was Grade II in September 1978, with the tower and archway being singled out to be of particular architectural interest. The main mill building itself was triple-spanned with 16 windows long and 3 bays wide. The four original wooden floors were held-up by a double row of cast iron columns supporting steel frames and floors.

The mill celebrated its 150th anniversary in 1977 making the oldest privately-owned fine worsted manufacturing company in Huddersfield. Its order books were still full. However, the ensuing five years saw the mill’s fortune take a turn for the worse and it closed in 1983 after 156 years of near continuous operation. Most of the buildings were subsequently let-out as business units until the site was sold in 2006. The boiler house and chimney failed to survive, along with the weaving sheds and some of the ancillary buildings and were demolished to make way for new housing.

The mill more recently in 2009:

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Recent bw pic by HughieDW, on Flickr

Ten year’s later, things took a turn for the worse. The mill was destroyed by fire in the early hours of Thursday 17th November 2016, with the entire mill interior collapsing earlier the following morning. The structure was declared dangerous later that day and demolition began immediately in the darkness that same evening. Fortunately, not everything was lost in the fire that November evening. The iconic clock-tower still stands and can still be seen clearly from Huddersfield town centre on a clear day, along with the weaving sheds, administrative buildings, ancillary structures, dwellings and mill ponds.

The mill after the 2016 fire:

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Newsome Fire by HughieDW, on Flickr

2. The Explore
A regular explore in urbex circles before the fire, this place understandable has fallen a bit off the radar. With a number of sites to hit up on a day’s explore of greater Huddersfield, we though we’d pay this place a speculative visit. As it happened, this paid off. Despite the ravages of the fire, there is still enough of interest to take up an hour or so of your time and to get up the clock tower was a bit of a bonus. Bottled the spiral stair(less) case to get up to the clock faces (which I now regret) but the views from the floor below made this a worthwhile mooch.

3. The Pictures

Hi-Tec signage:

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img0335 by HughieDW, on Flickr

That’s what we’re after!

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img0334 by HughieDW, on Flickr

First up, remains of the single-story part of the factory the fire didn’t destroy:

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Newsome 08 by HughieDW, on Flickr

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img0326 by HughieDW, on Flickr

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img0322 by HughieDW, on Flickr

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img0331bw by HughieDW, on Flickr

Two-story building behind the tower:

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Newsome 04 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Yup. That’s the roof at ground level:

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Newsome 03 by HughieDW, on Flickr

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img0297 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Trashed;

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img0293 by HughieDW, on Flickr

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img0294bw by HughieDW, on Flickr

Nice arch:

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img0337 by HughieDW, on Flickr

On to the tower:

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img0324 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Clock face:

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img0339 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Up the tower we go:

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Newsome 06 by HughieDW, on Flickr

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img0317 by HughieDW, on Flickr

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img0319 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Are we not men? No, we are Devo!

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img0312 by HughieDW, on Flickr

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img0318 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Looking down over the two-storey building behind the tower:

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Newsome 05 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Bit of peeling paint porn:

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Newsome 07 by HughieDW, on Flickr

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img0315 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Mmmm. Maybe not (at my age).

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img0309 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Lift sir?

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img0306 by HughieDW, on Flickr

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img0304 by HughieDW, on Flickr

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img0300 by HughieDW, on Flickr
 

tarkovsky

SWC
Regular User
Some nice pics and good to see what's left after the fire. What remains of that spiral staircase is certainly a wobbler but it's worth it for the clock faces. Although I got to the top and realised I'd left my camera at the bottom, so it was iPhone only pics. Then there's another ladder further up that let's you stick your head right out the top, with a good panoramic view of Shuddersfield.
 

chills

Queller of the uprising
Moderator
Nice to see some original features survive! Looks like a nice little explore!
 

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