Freshford Mill...Last Chance?

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SouthWestWanderer

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First post on the site, so be gentle.

This username is used by a couple of friends, so the term "we" means us two and any hangers on that were around at the time.

Last weekend, we went for a look around the Freshford Mill site near Bath.

I think we might have had the last chance for the site, as about 1/2 of it is rubble, and the rest looks like to be pulled down to make way for an "exciting" new development.

The photos are not great, I normally consider myself an amateur photographer, but the camera was showing dead battery on the way in, so these were "Camera on, shoot, camera off" type snaps.

Due to the vagiaries of imageshack they are in reverse-chronological order.

This is what the site looked like when "Pagan" vistied in April 2007:

http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=2586

More info on development:

http://freshfordmill.co.uk/
http://www.freshfordmill.com/




























 
Last edited:
Hi SWW
Enjoyed your pics and report. Nice photos, despite your dying battery. :D
I don't recall seeing the original report by Pagan (must have missed it), but interesting, and a shame, to see it going downhill and about to go altogether. Lovely building on the outside.

Cheers :)
 
I've got a load of photos from this place from the spring. I'll post some in a few days if I remember.

Nice place to live if you can afford it.
 
Just after the Second World War Freshford Mill was chosen as the site for a factory for Peradins Bonded Rubbers. Peradins made rubber components for the motor industry. One must suppose that due to the economic conditions that prevailed after the war it was considered more important to rebuild industrial production and that the planning department of what is now Bath and North-East Somerset rubber stamped the planning application. The Green Belt legislation wasn't enacted until 1947.

The factory also provided valuable employment for some local people although many were bussed in from Bradford and Trowbridge. The old buildings that were called Freshford Mill actually occupied only part of the present day extensive site. After a failure to get planning permission to extend the site in 1980 Peradin, which had become part of BTR (British Tyre & Rubber), moved production gradually away from Freshford. The factory finally closed in 1995. They left behind a site that has since deteriorated into a state of dereliction.
Click to expand...

























 
WOW, it is a huge site isn't it. I particularly like the 11th picture down, with the small arched top windows and the pulley at the top of the building. Cheers Krela for the history of the place. Didn't realise they had a part to play in motor car history.

Its a shame the mill etc is a 3 on the flood plain. Otherwise I think the development may have been good for the area.

Cheers,

:) Sal
 
Thanks for the update Krela I think that we have a pretty good timeline of the place, Your photos are (I guess) pre april 2007, then Pagan's thread, and I have the last few weeks of the site's days.....

I have always fancied a gander around the Avon plant in the centre of Bradfrod on Avon, but I think it might be a bit too dodgy, with the place under security (I was once told it had "RedCare" alarms), and the only real access being along the railway bridge. Maybe Next time I'm in the area I'll look into it.

Cheers, SWW.
 

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