Tales of the Urban Explorer: Pagefield Mill

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(Edited)

This one is otherwise known as Rylands Mill, but everything I see on non-Urbex sites names it, Pagefield Mill.

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Before leaving I was quietly confident about access to this massive historical industrial mess, but when we arrived we were greeted with this sight.

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It seemed they were not going to open the doors and welcome us in, and so after struggling to park (due to non-free spaces) we started skulking around the border which is next to a public park.

Some more recent news is this article...

…’ trespass and you could go to prison and be fined thousands’…

Trespassers have been warned they face a fine - or six months in prison - if they enter a 'severely dangerous' derelict mill.

There have been repeated reports of anti-social and criminal behaviour at Pagefield Mill in Wigan in recent weeks.

Wigan council has now obtained a closure order for the site, which makes it a criminal offence to enter.

Anyone found trespassing on the site, next to Mesnes Park, during that time could be liable to an unlimited fine and/or up to six months in prison.

This latest development comes after Wigan Council spent more than £150,000 on preventing access to the mill.

The order, which was supported by Greater Manchester Police, is valid until October 8.

The last sentence is the one that stuck out! From the 9th of October, you can now go in again? That's what it says to me!

The fact that they have spent £150,000 to try and stop the likes of me getting in I also find puzzling.

The date of the article is 23rd July, and we visited 2 days later. So this means we risked 6 months in jail or a large fine by pure ignorance?

As for the increased fencing, at some parts, it was 3 fences deep but as always there are chinks in the armour and after climbing a 6 feet wall and getting a little mucky we were in.

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…’some walls are bigger than others, this one needed bionic legs to jump over’…

Obtaining an outside shot of Pagefield Mill was challenging without a wide-angle lens. Once on the other side of the barrier we could only back-off so much.

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Parts of the building appeared to be have been bolted on to the older one, maybe the reception area?

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Is this the leaning tower of Wigan?

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It looks sealed but there were more holes than a rabbit warren. Getting inside was easy, to say the least, once the wall was breached.

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We were not expecting great things from Pagefield Mill, not even a bottle of HP sauce. Instead, we got massive open creepy floors with the customary mill pillars holding the ceiling up.

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There was someone else inside, as we could hear distant garbled noises. I insisted it was pigeons but @dizzydiscovery disagreed.

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Sure enough, 15 minutes later another band of roaming explorers appeared who seemed mostly harmless, and we said our customary hello's.

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Delving deeper into Pagefield Mill, there was an atmosphere of foreboding and once the other explorers had left, deadly silence.

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You do get used to this feeling over time, but in some places, it oozes it more than others.

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We found some steps going up and so leaving @dizzydiscovery behind who was afraid the floor was going to collapse, I started climbing.

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The further up we got, the narrower the steps became.

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He was making the effort but due to vertigo issues would not accompany me onto the roof.

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That was a shame as some of the best shots came from here, and you can see how vast this 19th-century factory behemoth really is.

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I ended up taking far too many ‘roof shots’ before descending intent on exploring what I could see from up there.

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…’the gloomy, moody shot that only comes from derelict mills’…

Within this mess, we met yet another bunch of explorers.

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They explained they were from the south where mills don't exist. This was all novel and new to them.

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Lots of fallen bricks but dangerous? The squidgy floors of the main upper mill were more so in my opinion.

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It was vast but became quite samey after a while. One pile of bricks looks much like the next.

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We exited through this 'handy hole' in the wall and made our way around to the front to get some externals.

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To say it was closed in 2007, I was expecting a few more personal items to still be knocking around.

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We spent over an hour in Pagefield Mill, a long time for us as we tend not to dilly-dally. It’s a decent explore and according to the internet article, you will no longer be jailed for visiting.

Expect some climbing, it’s no walk-in!

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21 comments
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Wow, that place is pretty cool. I'd really love to see you argue semantics with a bobby should one show up! That would be worth the price of admission right there. I think it is interesting they actually mention prison time. It seems like that is pretty rare over there.

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It was quite varied due to the size, often mills are smaller and all the same. The access to the roof was great, as you can't always get up there. I have vertigo issues but not like dizzy, he's 4x worse than me.

As for the prison thing.., I would not have gone if I had known. It was months later when a fellow explorer pointed out the article to me. I didn't know that this could be enforced.., just like the 1824 Vagrancy Act that the cops pull sometimes.

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What a fantastic adventure. For those of us just reading about it, very glad you were able to find your way inside! Such a neat place to explore.

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Finding them is the hard part, abandoned places need to be researched before going, to avoid disappointment. You can't always get in and at least part of the time, it needs some climbing.

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What a cool explore. I would of guessed it was closed well before 2007. The damage seems incredible for 13 years? Unless I read that wrong at the end.

The masonry and architecture on the outside of that building is incredible! You just don't see craftsmanship like that in modern buildings much anymore. Shame they couldn't be made into loft spaces or apartments just to save the framework of such a splendid building.

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Yes 2007..., it was used as a collage for a while.. this is the reason for the newer section with the yellow stairs. I wonder what it was like inside as it looks like its been empty for much longer.

They don't make them like they used too, but we are spoilt over here with an abundance of old architecture that is slowly being demolished.

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That was a good explore. I really prefer that the mills have some machinery left to speculate on...

It's amazing to me how vast that whole place is. Also amazing that you ran into two other groups of explorers.

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(Edited)

I was disappointing so see nothing left, they are not always exciting places and quite similar in the internal atmosphere. This one was doing the Coach Tours I guess on that day!

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I would have been afraid to climb those stairs I admit, I admire the courage of others to do such things

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I have been up a lot worse, these were quite sturdy and metal.

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Oh my you're brave. I have a slight fear of such stairs🙈

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That spirally staircase lols cool, and I wonder who squishy boot 2 is hmmm

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It's been photographed many times, and there's only one place you can get the ultimate shot!

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Great shots! I'm slightly jealous cause places like these are definitely on my list! It's a weird mix between being in awe of what remains and wondering what once was...

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Thanks for continuing to make Hive awesome.

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(Edited)

A good photo report)) I thought that only in Russia you can find such "ruins", I was mistaken)) And the community is interesting, local history so to speak, otherwise I was wondering where to publish my materials, I am an authorized representative in the media Verkhoturye Museum-Reserve (Verkhoturye is the spiritual capital of the Urals and Siberia, one of the oldest cities in the Urals and the former capital of the Urals) ... So, it looks like I found a community to my liking))

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Looks like at some point in time they were making a go of sorting some scrap metal outside. Seems like 150K would go a long ways to demolition the place.

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