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Report - - H. S. Pledge & Sons Flour mill (Ashford may 23) | Industrial Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - H. S. Pledge & Sons Flour mill (Ashford may 23)

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Exploring With Pride 🌈

Exploring with pride in more ways than one
28DL Full Member
H. S. Pledge & Sons Ltd was a business engaged in the milling industry. The long-standing landmark, built in 1901 and first owned by miller Henry Sturges Pledge who learnt his trade at the Black Mill at Barham near Canterbury in Kent. The company operated at Ashford until 1984 when its remaining mill was destroyed by fire.

East Hill Mill was a watermill and steam mill. it was a nightclub owned by Luminar Leisure called Liquid and Envy it almost burned to the ground almost 47 years ago, and it provided the social soundtrack to many enjoyable nights out from the 1980s until 2014.

On the mill it states the date when it was built "Flour Mill 1901". In the 1901 census of West Ashford the Miller was Pledge's son Lawrence, he lived at the mill with his wife Ellen and six children.[8]

The explore Having recently been sent an article about it the place we decided to check it out not really knowing what to expect after parking up i went round the back to look for any entry points and was right away met by an armadillo fortunately i saw it before it saw me despite the presence of them entry was surprisingly easy although i told my partner to check round every corner and door once inside assuming that there would probably be more inside

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once inside we worked our way through some manky rooms to the reception area
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at this point i saw a red light blinking on the back wall then realised it was a mirror so i peeked round the corner and saw another armadillo
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not being able to go in any further we headed up to the next floor
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we then came to the entrance to the 1st floor dance room and met by another armadillo standing in the centre of the pitch black dance floor only revealed by the blinking lights on it
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it being our first time dealing with these things we wasn't sure how they worked whispering and keeping out touches low we crawled along the floor to the doors on our left into a small function room
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then back into the dance hall I decided to try going round the dillo by slowly crawling along the floor at the edge of the room to the low part of the bar, sliding through the gap then behind the bar to the door out onto the floor then slowly crawling again to the back of the room to another set of doors there was a few obstacles blocking the dillo that made it abit easier. My partner being less agile than me waited while i did this be solo
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a shot of the dillo from the far side my partner waiting by the open door
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crawling to the doors behind me they lead me to stairs down to the kitchen, office,basement and far side of the room below with the other dillo after a quick look round i head back to the dance floor to try work out where the stairs to the upper floors are knowing they must be in there somewhere
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now back to my waiting partner he points out some doors to the right again crawling low we get to them fortunately a pillar between us and the dillo gives us cover so I decide to get a pic of the dance floor before we go up
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the two upper floors were pretty grim your usual mix of pigeon crap and mold we did find a metal ladder to the tower but the wood ladder to the hatch didn't feel stable so we decided against going up lol
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and a room used by squatters and of corse with porn mags laying around 😂
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finally a few outside ones
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thanks for looking
 

sirjonnyp

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Nice work, I've always wanted to see the upper levels of this place.

My understanding is that until recently, the building is owned by the Ashford Girls School next door, and that they rented it out the nightclubs over the years. Liquid went seven or eight years ago, and the school eventually sold it off to developers for flats. I think.

There's some background here which seems to marry up with what I remember. Before it was Liquid / Envy, it was Cales and Flatfoot Sam, but that's going back to when I was a toddler. The fire appears to have actually been in 1974, and in the early 80s was when the nightclubs started.
 

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