Kinky
Active member
Quick , quick! Gather round , gather round! It's time to hear (or rather read) about my tales of adventure!
I thought id start off by bringing you all around a lovely lit fire as i can still feel the cold from the other day at this place and would like to make it cosy for you all in here.
The day started a little bit later than expected trying to get to Oakwood as being the clever clogs i and my friend were managed to take EVERY wrong path to get NEAR the place to then finally stumble upon it after getting dirty looks from some cyclists.
My very first impression when getting to the mill was of two minds.
1)WOW What a lovely building this must of been/still is.
2)What amazing security fences (considering of a 5/6ft tall spikey fence most of the bars were ripped off haha)
I looked around the outside of the building in awe of how such as beautiful old mill was still standing despite how close and easily this could be targetted by vandals (which to be fair there is really alot of graffiti in here or obviouslly deliberate fires!)
Im not to sure of the history of the mill too much and there doesnt seem to be any proper information i can find on wikipedia (FFS i know the crutch of so many people) and the only person i could probably talk to wasnt available for it so i have had to extract it from another forums archived report(im sorry!)
History:
Oakwood Mill is on the edge of the village of Millbrook, between Stalybridge and Mossley, and about 4 miles from Ashton under Lyme. The mill; which is part of a conservation area, and is a Grade II Listed Building is becoming increasingly dilapidated; there are (were) hopes that the mill buildings can be preserved and converted for residential use. (looking at the current structural state of the mill I very much doubt it could be preserved).
The 3 story mill was built as a specialised spinning mill for the Staley Mill Company between1851and 1887, they sold it off and all machinery for £13,000 in 1937. During the second world was the mill was used to keep Italian prisoners.
Centrally is the clock tower which is dated 1857, a new engine house was built in 1908, which has white glazed bricks internally.
History from the end of the war is a bit sketchy, it ended life being used for various light-industrial purposes, probably closing in the late 80’s or early 90’s.
Link to Archived report with history.
As i was exploring there were some lovely bits of archetecture , pipes, tiles , beams, openings for light to creep in and was really just an epic mix match of diffirent "feel" in a small area , some of it felt like a small decayed house, Others more clinical or production based, others vast and void of anything but the supporting pillars, other areas with immense doorways. I was saddened slightly to realise that a rather large part of the building has been knocked down and currently alot of it is hard to get into regardless (I am determined to get ontop of one of what seems like the main staircase as the colours in the sky lately are beautiful around sunset and you will be able to see for miles!)
I kinda guess ive done too much talking at this point so i shall slap some images down and a little treat at the end for those feeling the need a little guilty HDR pleasure(depsite how i havent quite got it down yet...)
I forgot!
I completely forgot to mention, these pictures were all taken with my epic new Nikon D3200 , all pictures were using the 18~55mm DX lens that comes with it , although im not sure if a few have crept in from the 55~200mm lens! :O
Oakwood Mill
the room im looking into here was the very first room we got into and it still has the vents , but for how long i have no idea as the wooden rafters above looked rather sketchy!
this is just stood ontop of the red brickwork you see in the first picture, the light creeping into this room as the sun set was amazing!
A quick look at the wall and opening i had to come through. crazy to think there was 3 floor here and now , nothing!
Cant beat a lovely chimney tower can you
I think its time to venture back into what seems like the Delivery/Loading area?
A few nice shots of this area as i really loved how it was central to the mill and has wonderful varnished /tiled walls, decay, nature and all sorts of stuff happening in such a small area.
This is from atop where one of the fallen beams lay but hidden in a small bit of wall, i had gotten rather daring with the climbing and trying to be all Artsy Farsty with the new camera
That's about it so far while i sort through the many many pictures i took as i kind of went a bit mental on the cameras first proper outting. I will hopefully be adding a lot more images to the main non edited folder these photos are located in on my photobucket so for those interested in seeing more check the clicky thing below!
Go on , Click me, you know you want to!
HDR Naughtiness...