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Report - - Norfolk Feather Company..Diss, March 2023 | Industrial Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Norfolk Feather Company..Diss, March 2023

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Mikeymutt

28DL Regular User
Regular User
Visited here with @dansgas1000 and @JakeV50 in the early spring. I then went back with Man Gone Wrong. It's a place I had noticed had shut and nothing done with it. I mentioned it to the other two and they said they had noticed it looking rather empty and unused. So we decided to give it a little crack one weekend. Thankfully nearly all of it was open except one building. Some machinery had been sold off but thankfully some remained. I liked the big drums for spinning the feathers in. Presumably this was to fluff them up before going into the pillows. It was a relaxed couple of visits. We did save the office till the end as door said alarmed. I said to the other two it won't be alarmed as the whole building we have been in has not gone off. As we opened the door the alarm went off ha ha. So we just made our way out. It was nice to see a factory in Norfolk. We don’t get much industrial here so got to grab them whilst you can.

The Norfolk feather company can see its roots in the town go back some ninety years. The feather company set up in 1993 at the Diss site. They had plans to move to a new site at the Snetterton industrial park. Sadly that did not go ahead as planned. The company was hit hard during COVID. Supplies from china were severely disrupted. And the feathers they were getting in were of an inferior quality. Problems with cashflow and no funding finally led to the company shutting its doors in October last year. They were suppliers too Harrods and Dunhelm and other high end retailers. The pillows were usually often costing over a hundred pounds upwards. The site has been sold to Aldi who have a shop down the road but are having issues with the lease. They plan to demolish the site and build a new one on half the land with the other half up for rent.

Starting of with a quick phone external.

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Feathers are everywhere here.

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The main warehouse were stuff was stored.

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An upstairs storage area with an unusual hoist system to manoeuvre products up and down.

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The amount of bags of fethers dotted about was unreal. I can imagine each large bag was a fortune to buy as they are most likely mainly geese feathers.

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Nice to see some Avery scales in situ.

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Climbing into one of the spinning drums.

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Continued..
 
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Mikeymutt

28DL Regular User
Regular User
Down the side is several safes. One on the floor and one in the little electrical room. You can see the quality of the document storage in the background.

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Heading to some other parts of the site. This was were the pillows and cushions were made. All the outer lining, labels, boxes etc were stored.

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Upstairs storage area, and another hoist.

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This was the sewing room. I was quite sad to see the machines gone, as were the other two.

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Heading back out and along the side are several buildings which have not been in use for a while. This was an old pump house for the site.

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There was several huts what looked like concrete pre fab buildings. This one had some funky wallpaper on the walls. After the war these pre fabs were used to house displaced families. So no doubt the company bought some old ones.

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To the rear of the main building is a very cramped boiler house. It holds two Cochran uptight boilers. The Cochran company built ships and boilers for the ships originally and are based in Scotland. I have never seen these style boilers before.

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dansgas1000

28DL Regular User
Regular User
Excellent set mate, you've captured it nicely. It was a surprisingly good wander and good to see it wasn't fully stripped, so many different things to see like the boiler house and pump house. I forgot about that bloody alarm 🤣

I went back to show a mate whilst we were in Diss around a month ago, it's been well and truly trashed now, so I'm glad we did it at the right time.
 

Mikeymutt

28DL Regular User
Regular User
Excellent set mate, you've captured it nicely. It was a surprisingly good wander and good to see it wasn't fully stripped, so many different things to see like the boiler house and pump house. I forgot about that bloody alarm 🤣

I went back to show a mate whilst we were in Diss around a month ago, it's been well and truly trashed now, so I'm glad we did it at the right time.
Thank you kindly mate. Yeah it was a fun morning. That alarm was funny when we walked past later and still going off.
Oh you went back. Was it really bad then, I have wondered if it was still open. Obviously no one bothers looking at it now.
 

dansgas1000

28DL Regular User
Regular User
Thank you kindly mate. Yeah it was a fun morning. That alarm was funny when we walked past later and still going off.
Oh you went back. Was it really bad then, I have wondered if it was still open. Obviously no one bothers looking at it now.
Yeah, it was enjoyable - us three need to meet up again soon. Yeah, I don't think anyone checks up on it, the alarmed part is wide open now, I think electricity has now been turned off though and they've made attempts to board things up but there are still so many ways into each building now. The green door on the side is still unlocked :rofl But yeah it terms of the condition, there's feathers everywhere now people have been emptying the bags out onto the floor etc, paper everywhere etc.
 

Calamity Jane

i see beauty in the unloved, places & things
Regular User
Lovely set. So much to take in. Really nicely covered. I like the little details, like the old light switch. Sometimes there is so much too see, we miss the little things.
 

Mikeymutt

28DL Regular User
Regular User
Yeah, it was enjoyable - us three need to meet up again soon. Yeah, I don't think anyone checks up on it, the alarmed part is wide open now, I think electricity has now been turned off though and they've made attempts to board things up but there are still so many ways into each building now. The green door on the side is still unlocked :rofl But yeah it terms of the condition, there's feathers everywhere now people have been emptying the bags out onto the floor etc, paper everywhere etc.
Yeah mate we will have to meet up soon. Oh I may have to go back and look at the little canteen hut and offices. I wonder if that other building is open now.
 

Mikeymutt

28DL Regular User
Regular User
Lovely set. So much to take in. Really nicely covered. I like the little details, like the old light switch. Sometimes there is so much to see, we miss the little things.
Thank you Jane. I have always liked the details. I know a lot say it should just be wide shots. But i think the little things show just as much.
 
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