Hi! Joined the site a while ago, but today was my first foray into Urbexing. My fiancée and I decided, after looking online and checking out a few YouTube videos, to try Hilden Mill.
It has been sold for redevelopment, so we thought we had better get on it while we still had a chance!
The mill had what I think is a mind boggling amount of equipment, including
– 30,000 spindles
– 8000 twisting machines
Amazingly, by the end of the 19th century, the mill was considered the largest linen-thread manufacturer in the world. When war broke out in 1914, over 2000 people were employed at the Hilden Mill and with their help the mill produced linen thread that was used to stitch war-time parachutes, uniforms, boots and knapsacks.
when we arrived, there were a few cars parked at what we believed to be the entrance, and one was a can with people in it. Worrying they were security, we walked on down the road and took a short wander alone the tow path, where I took these two snaps
But this only served to whet our appetite further and made us determined to get in and have an explore! Back we went after 30 minutes and huzzah! The van was gone.
in we went (she went, my portly self squeezed) through the spot we'd found. There was a little twisty almost path, which led to a wall that people clearly climb over, based on some piled detritus. I decided against it, should I fall and do myself a mischief, and we followed the path to the right where we found a fence with a section missing. Result!
And Finally, An Unexpectedly Wholesome Message!
It was sad to see what time, a fire, and general vandalism have done to this building, but it is still incredibly eerie, and impressive. I did take a LOT more photos, but I didn't want to overload my first forum post.
Hopefully this post is ok, I'm posting it on mobile so please forgive any formatting errors, and I hope this is the first of many posts to come!
It has been sold for redevelopment, so we thought we had better get on it while we still had a chance!
The mill had what I think is a mind boggling amount of equipment, including
– 30,000 spindles
– 8000 twisting machines
Amazingly, by the end of the 19th century, the mill was considered the largest linen-thread manufacturer in the world. When war broke out in 1914, over 2000 people were employed at the Hilden Mill and with their help the mill produced linen thread that was used to stitch war-time parachutes, uniforms, boots and knapsacks.
when we arrived, there were a few cars parked at what we believed to be the entrance, and one was a can with people in it. Worrying they were security, we walked on down the road and took a short wander alone the tow path, where I took these two snaps
But this only served to whet our appetite further and made us determined to get in and have an explore! Back we went after 30 minutes and huzzah! The van was gone.
in we went (she went, my portly self squeezed) through the spot we'd found. There was a little twisty almost path, which led to a wall that people clearly climb over, based on some piled detritus. I decided against it, should I fall and do myself a mischief, and we followed the path to the right where we found a fence with a section missing. Result!
A Few External Shots
A Few Internal Ones
And Finally, An Unexpectedly Wholesome Message!
It was sad to see what time, a fire, and general vandalism have done to this building, but it is still incredibly eerie, and impressive. I did take a LOT more photos, but I didn't want to overload my first forum post.
Hopefully this post is ok, I'm posting it on mobile so please forgive any formatting errors, and I hope this is the first of many posts to come!