Well what an eventful trip this was!
Day started out badly - I overslept so me, Landie Man and TBM were about an hour and a half late setting off from Aylesbury to make what should have been an hour and a half-2 hour drive tops to Spillers Millenium Mills and Rank Hovis. Getting stuck in very heavy traffic on the M25 made us even later, and we slowly baked in the heat in the non air-conditioned Land Rover. Stopping at Thurrock services for 'lunch' at about 2.30 after about 2 and a half hours on the road, the Land Rover decided to develop a fuel injection problem, so that put us back a further 2 and a half hours. We finished the last 16 miles to the Docklands at about 5.30, a full 5 and a half hours after we'd set off from Aylesbury!
Access to the site was OK thanks to some great tips from Ali and we found ourselves standing in Rank Hovis taking it all in, after such a fraught journey. No signs of security at all on the way into the site so all felt good. The explore of Rank Hovis was nice and relaxed apart from TBM putting his foot through the floor a few storeys up, and us spotting security at the gates by Millenium Mills once but we waited for them to leave. By the time we'd done Rank Hovis the light was beginning to go down, and none of us fancied being in Millenium Mills in the dark, having seen the perilous state of some of the floors in Rank Hovis so we called it a night, and were met by the very pleasant security guards on the way out of Rank Hovis after hiding in some bushes for a bit
Anyway I've probably bored you with this chatter, I won't bother with history as it's been done many times before but here is my take on Rank Hovis.....
And lastly a look over the water from behind Millenium Mills...
more pics here Rank Hovis Mill, London Docklands ta for reading
Day started out badly - I overslept so me, Landie Man and TBM were about an hour and a half late setting off from Aylesbury to make what should have been an hour and a half-2 hour drive tops to Spillers Millenium Mills and Rank Hovis. Getting stuck in very heavy traffic on the M25 made us even later, and we slowly baked in the heat in the non air-conditioned Land Rover. Stopping at Thurrock services for 'lunch' at about 2.30 after about 2 and a half hours on the road, the Land Rover decided to develop a fuel injection problem, so that put us back a further 2 and a half hours. We finished the last 16 miles to the Docklands at about 5.30, a full 5 and a half hours after we'd set off from Aylesbury!
Access to the site was OK thanks to some great tips from Ali and we found ourselves standing in Rank Hovis taking it all in, after such a fraught journey. No signs of security at all on the way into the site so all felt good. The explore of Rank Hovis was nice and relaxed apart from TBM putting his foot through the floor a few storeys up, and us spotting security at the gates by Millenium Mills once but we waited for them to leave. By the time we'd done Rank Hovis the light was beginning to go down, and none of us fancied being in Millenium Mills in the dark, having seen the perilous state of some of the floors in Rank Hovis so we called it a night, and were met by the very pleasant security guards on the way out of Rank Hovis after hiding in some bushes for a bit
Anyway I've probably bored you with this chatter, I won't bother with history as it's been done many times before but here is my take on Rank Hovis.....
And lastly a look over the water from behind Millenium Mills...
more pics here Rank Hovis Mill, London Docklands ta for reading
