History: Originally belonging to John Livesey who had previously run paper mills at Prestolee & Springfield. Paper was made continuously since 1834. At this time rags & textiles were recycled to make paper; wood pulp was not used in papermaking until about 1910 meaning Livesey's enterprise did not prosper & was closed down in 1839. The mill was purchased by William Spencer and the mill remained in the Spencer family until 1972. It was then owned by Courtaulds. In February 1994 a blaze destroyed a warehouse which contained 200 tons of paper tissue & cotton. The Canadian Tissue company Kruger were the last owners. The factory closed in 2002, and Kruger left the UK around 2010.
Future: Blackburn with Darwen Council has been pushing for housing on the site. Daineswell has been appointed project manager, and together with URL, have obtained planning consent for an outline development of up to 110 new houses. Demolition, major asbestos removal, remediation and major earthworks, plus the 900m upgraded adoptable access road is expected to cost in the region of £3m.
Explore: As stated in the title these photos are from two visits. The site has active cameras so we've made attempts over the year and got in two times. The last we got back to the car and were leaving as security drove past us to the front gate.
View from the road on the other side where we made our first doomed attempt at entry:
It's a mix of warehouses, industrial units, and office sections. We've probably spent four hours in total getting around. Originally we weren't thinking of sharing the first visit so I only have photos with us in them. Didn't take extras for the forum report.
The place is huge. And easy to get a bit lost when you're trying to skip through buildings to avoid cameras.
Anyone know what this thing is? There were three of them lying around.
Or these? There were loads of them:
Some offices in better condition than others:
We skipped quite a few buildings because they looked really unsafe. So while I wanted to now what that piece of equipment was at the end of this building, a large tile fell down as we started walking in and we took it as a warning from whichever god watches over urbexers.
There were a couple of weird rooms like the First Aid room which was white, dark, with just one chair in the corner.
And one that had loads of laboratory stuff in it but was in the basement of a wooden lined room with no ventilation:
The graffitti was impressive. A couple by YERP who is apparently from Manchester and we've seen a few of his pieces at other urbexing spots like the Wigan menses factories.
Yes, she's having a mini panic as she thought she heard footsteps coming round. Were any of you doing this place in July 2021? We took off after we heard someone coming through a building. But security showed up AFTER we left so wondered if we'd been running from an urbexer - not security!
Future: Blackburn with Darwen Council has been pushing for housing on the site. Daineswell has been appointed project manager, and together with URL, have obtained planning consent for an outline development of up to 110 new houses. Demolition, major asbestos removal, remediation and major earthworks, plus the 900m upgraded adoptable access road is expected to cost in the region of £3m.
Explore: As stated in the title these photos are from two visits. The site has active cameras so we've made attempts over the year and got in two times. The last we got back to the car and were leaving as security drove past us to the front gate.
View from the road on the other side where we made our first doomed attempt at entry:
It's a mix of warehouses, industrial units, and office sections. We've probably spent four hours in total getting around. Originally we weren't thinking of sharing the first visit so I only have photos with us in them. Didn't take extras for the forum report.
The place is huge. And easy to get a bit lost when you're trying to skip through buildings to avoid cameras.
Anyone know what this thing is? There were three of them lying around.
Or these? There were loads of them:
Some offices in better condition than others:
We skipped quite a few buildings because they looked really unsafe. So while I wanted to now what that piece of equipment was at the end of this building, a large tile fell down as we started walking in and we took it as a warning from whichever god watches over urbexers.
There were a couple of weird rooms like the First Aid room which was white, dark, with just one chair in the corner.
And one that had loads of laboratory stuff in it but was in the basement of a wooden lined room with no ventilation:
The graffitti was impressive. A couple by YERP who is apparently from Manchester and we've seen a few of his pieces at other urbexing spots like the Wigan menses factories.
Yes, she's having a mini panic as she thought she heard footsteps coming round. Were any of you doing this place in July 2021? We took off after we heard someone coming through a building. But security showed up AFTER we left so wondered if we'd been running from an urbexer - not security!
