Tales of the Urban Explorer: Unity Mill

in Urban Exploration9 months ago (edited)

“We can’t just walk down that road, there’s a bloke living there raising pigs or something?”

‘Private Road, No Access’, said the sign boldly. Was it meant for vehicles or pedestrians? If the latter, then there would be no reason to walk through PigMans property unless we were going to ‘Unity Mill, and he wasn’t going to like that.

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I'm sure in 2004 this would have been a tough one to crack. Now the only issue was avoiding the bloke that 'owns' the road that runs into the main factory. I don't know if he's a rabid maniac, and would just as well have no contact so we bypassed him skirting around the edges, getting very muddy only to be met with a long line of sturdy fencing.

At the bottom end, someone had obviously gotten pissed off and started tramping it down with their heavy boots. It was still a little tricky to navigate being quite springy but hardly a deterrent for @anidiotexplores and myself.

Unity Mill was constructed in the 1860s for spinning cotton and was formerly known as Trianon Mill. By the 1890s it had been converted to a rubber works but later was converted back again to a textile mill. The site was used for the manufacture of products for the food, animal feed, and brewing sector until it closed in December 2003.
Source

I grabbed the history but can't find the source (besides the same sentence being used on every Urban Exploring post known to man). Closed for 20 years means, it's going to be just about ruin level, and I found one example of a fire being started, and would be surprised if there's no more.

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I noticed the 'trespasser' sign didn't spout the usual bullshit warnings of 'trespassers will be prosecuted' and reverted to 'trespassers will be liable for any damage'.

Does that mean we would have a welcome committee waiting for us, complete with tea and biscuits? This is as good as it gets, so we took it to heart and hoped there might be some Jammie Dodgers as well as Cappuccino’s with free refills.


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Source
’Unity Mill 2005, when windows were a thing and explorers were nowhere to be seen’…

Despite being on the grounds of one of the derpiest mills ever, access was still proving tough. Part of ’Unity Mill’ has been demolished so those doorways up there now lead to a huge drop and fresh air.

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This smaller building was looking unappetizing, but the whole thing looked kind of crap so we figured a look would do no harm.

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With only a 'Slag' in the corner and an average pink octopus, we made for the main building looking for an entrance.

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After circling like landlocked buzzards, @anidiotexplores climbed a metal fence making shit-loads of noise in the process to, ‘get in’, or so he thought.

"Oh fuck, this is it, no way up the stairs", he complained. They had bricked off the staircases, well how nice. Hoping PigMan had not heard all the noise, we continued until one of us spotted this:

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@anidiotexplores being the skinny bastard he is, breathed in hard and squeezed edging through the inner gap with some trouble. Would I have to sit it out?

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Not a chance! I did the same and edged through inch by inch feeling metal on both my front and back digging into my skin. This was not an exercise for fatties and I still don't know how I managed to get through such a tiny gap.

We were in, but was it worth the effort of several scrape marks on my upper body?

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Well of course, with sights like this, how can one complain?

The stairs blockers must not have factored in that getting past that iron fencing was ever going to happen as they appeared to be mostly open.

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Three floors of virtual nothingness awaited us. Besides many images such as this one, ’Unity Mill’ was bare and riddled with fallen bricks and masonry.

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You can see part of it has been concreted, but it was hardly impeding our progress. Some people don't know if they are gay or not. It's a confusing subject, and people's minds can change often, as can be seen on the walls.

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@anidiotexplores dithers around on the far side of this floor which has half of it missing. There were several areas that we were almost forced to jump to get across. It was kind of dangerous but the sections intact appeared extremely sturdy.

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One of the stairs and a few blockages awaited but with multiple exits there was always a way to ascend or descend.

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Most of the artwork was on the ropey side, with glimmers of talent. If you can't get through a wall, making a hole is sometimes for the best if you want access.

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The mandatory cock shots, without them it wouldn’t be genuine.

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‘Liz’ was as good as it gets, and that had been violated with nonsensical bullshit writing.

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What a depressing place to work. Having experience working for a very short stint in a mill, I can attest it was the worst place to work ever, surpassing even 'The Horrors of Kwiksave'.

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Keep to the right, there’s little health and safety this far up.

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A scene looking out, it’s a long way down.

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Careful edging around there, the floor will ‘probably’ not collapse but there are no guarantees.

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Finding little but piles of bricks, we edged back through the extra small gap, giving me some more chest scratches and marks, and headed for the next exploration.

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Pretty damn empty! You got some great shots of the ruin though. I hope you got a tetanus shot too after squeezing through that metal!
!BBH

I didn't have to go chest naked to get through, though one of these days that demand could face me!

At least you were skinny enough to squeeze through!

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Now this is something that we have plenty of in Romania! Sadly sooner or later most of the big buildings or halls end up like this, but never really entered one as we expect to see plenty of homeless people staying there and most of them are pretty unfriendly due to the drinks and drugs they take, ugh

but never really entered one as we expect to see plenty of homeless people staying there and most of them are pretty unfriendly

Are they there during the day? It's the same here, but they are rarely about daytime hours.., these places are for sleeping only. There's money to be made begging in daylight hours, and we can scour their 'home' while they are out.

Moms with their children are there most of the time sadly. It's very rare not to be someone around. Feels like they all have a very planned schedule when to be there and when to go begging so there won't be too many on the streets at the same time lol

Jammie Dodgers we know as Strawberry Whirls, don't taste too good either as they once were....

No use lamenting extra belt squeezing through tight spaces, cost good money to put that there, not so?

Visual artwork not up to scratch, half mast, erect, squiggles, wiggles, broken English..... Glad you had fun on another explore.

!BEER

I don't like them much now, they tasted better when I was a kid. Is it me, or have they doctored them (like you say?)

Bloody awful now, most treats/food tastes like cardboard unless homemade.....

Hehe, but it is us just getting old? I have to question that!

No no, modern manufacture is cheap and nasty, I remember things really tasted goooooood! Now trying to con you to eat insects GFY Mr Ballzy..... untitled.gif

Not very interesting on the inside, but on the outside it is a nice-looking old building. Thanks for the adventure.
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I was hoping for some decent artwork, but found little. That's about as much as you can expect.

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Incredible remains!!! Looks like a really fun explore

Looks like a really fun explore

The entry was probably the most fun, if not a little painful!

You did great with the shots, even in that state it still looked nice. I wondered if you were not scared while you were taking the tour, you didn’t think of anything creepy?

Not creepy at all, I am well passed that stage. While solo exploring you can get some of that at times.

Some great shots! It looks much bigger inside than from the outside. I've never done abandoned places photography, I should start. It's a nice style.

So was there a welcome tea party? I can't handle the suspense. 😂

I've never done abandoned places photography, I should start. It's a nice style.

You should, it's fascinating and you get to see things most people never do.

So was there a welcome tea party?

No, that part was a let down. The entire catering team were out that day.. 😨

Well everyone deserves a day off I guess.

I agree with seeing things most never do, it's a different perspective. I like the graffities too.

Alberta has many abandoned farmhouses in canola fields that you can take photos of from the highway without trespassing. I should go around the backroads, there is some oddities especially around old abandoned farming or mining equipment along with old wooden grain houses. To think of it I did do some rustic tourism but it wasn't abandoned, they had a museum, an old charcoal wooden tipple. We got to go inside and everything.

Hard to think it was still running 21 years ago. What a change, although it must have been properly cleared, as if ready for conversion.

It's likely grade listed, and is up for lease as two separate buildings. I'm not sure where the second one is, unless they mean the 'Slag' hut. It's barely worthwhile.

'Trespassers will be prosecuted' and 'trespassers will be liable for any damage' both sound a lot like the old adage "illegal with a fine just means legal for a fee." 😂

I don't know if it was intentional, but your framing of the shot with part of the floor missing (15th photo from the top) makes it look very Escherian, with impossible columns supporting impossible levels. Pretty cool!

I also like the rounded corners on the bricks of the columns in the shot just above that. Not something you see a lot of these days.

Aside from these little details, though, this looks like it was pretty disappointing. Especially when you count the effort involved to squeeze in. It always sucks to get in somewhere after the scrappers have already torn out all the equipment and carried off absolutely everything of visual and historical interest.

!PIMP
!PIZZA


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I was amazed that there's a whole lot of nothing there. It was surprising that they were able to take out most of the stuff inside. There were a lot of graffiti, but there weren't a lot of trash. It was pretty interesting seeing such a spacious building.

Always interesting having a peek inside these random buildings that I would never know what is inside otherwise. Keep em coming, pretty random past time, but you seem to really enjoy it man, so more power to you.

How much this old ?

It is a beautiful building and huge. Every abandoned building carries some history

I love the handwritings on the wall though
They are beautiful and thanks for the pictures!

If you can't see the images, open this post on inleo.io

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