Paton's Mill, Johnstone 05/09

William Paton founded a mill and bootlace factory in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, in the mid-19th century.
His factory occupied the site of an earlier cotton mill that was established there in 1782.
The factory closed in 2003.



This was by far one of the scariest explores I've ever done....

As I got nearer to the buildings, I could hear things being smashed up and with a slight glimpse of older men, I presumed it was workmen stripping the place.
Got a wee bit closer and I could see a wee kid with a metal pole in his hand smashing things up, then the voices of others.

Didn't know what to do, was in 2 minds weather to turn back but I had came 3 hours and didn't want to go away with some getting a few pictures.
So I put my money and phone down my bra and off I went.

The first building I came across was completley gutted by fire [later I was told that the fire happened the day before].
I made my way to where the noise was coming from and I could see a man up a ladder. I walked towards him and to cut a long story short, he was a pikey nicking the metal. Him and about 20 others - mostly aged 12! They all came out of no where towards me.
I managed to convince them I wasn't the police and I was just a girl from Aberdeen wanting to take photos.
They couldn't understand why the hell I wanted to do that but they said they wouldn't bother me if I wouldnt bother them. .. So off I went.

What I saw was not what I seen in the reports on here.
These guys have completley ruined the place, nicked everything and anything worth value.
Every floor they pulled boards off the window and threw things out.
They have snapped the locks off the front gate so their vans can come in and get the stash.





















And here are the little shites









So so sad that it's got like this :/
I hope one of them does fall from that window...

Argh - picture 7 was a rather rare loom which the Clyde Heritage Trust were trying to retrieve, once we worked out how to get it out of the attic. The one solution we didn't consider was to smash it up and chuck it out of the window. Here's what it used to look like:

That first pic of the mill in excellent order is fantastic, well done for finding that.

Unbelievable the state of the the place now

Hmm, sad to see history destroyed like this. You need large cojones to do what you did, so well done there. As for the pikies, well... the only good ones are the dead ones!

BenCooper said:

Argh - picture 7 was a rather rare loom which the Clyde Heritage Trust were trying to retrieve, once we worked out how to get it out of the attic. The one solution we didn't consider was to smash it up and chuck it out of the window. Here's what it used to look like:

Click to expand...

Ben I remember seeing that photo and thinking, naw, surely that can't be the same thing.
The kids said its still there as they cant lift it to throw it out the window. Makes me sooo mad.

I really dont get Pikeys/Chavs

Why didn't you call the police?

LiamCH said:

Why didn't you call the police?

Click to expand...

Wondering that too?

Also carry some money and a old moby so if someone wants to rob you, you have something to give!

But well done, great courage, that building looked great, such a pity

As for the loom if it got up there then...

Could you not crane it out, is it now beyond salvage?

Calling the police would do naff-all good - the kids would run away, the police won't go into dangerous buildings unless there's a really, really good reason, and as sson as the police leave the kids will be back.

All that protects places like this is on-site security.

We could've craned it out but we'd have to take the roof off, and it would need a big and expensive crane - we just don't have the budget for that kind of thing. We'd probably have done it by dismantling and carefully winching out the window.

I've seen police inside Broadford Works rounding up vandals.

BenCooper said:

We could've craned it out but we'd have to take the roof off, and it would need a big and expensive crane - we just don't have the budget for that kind of thing. We'd probably have done it by dismantling and carefully winching out the window.

Click to expand...

Takes me back to the days I used to have a small transport company and regularity used to collect looms that used to be sent to Ireland for repair/overhaul

I was there last month doing a shoot with a local band.

We got some cracking shots, until right at the end when I was taking individual pictures of the members, a group of wee bams (who actually might be the very same ones pictures, certainly the same age) came back from a "fishing trip" down the river and once they spotted us, started chucking bits of anything they could grab.

Huge boulders and bits of metal and whatever else came crashing through the windows of one of the little out-houses where we were shooting.

A few started to come inside, and once they seen me on the phone they ran away.

Funny thing is, the police had no idea where we were, and it took me about 5 minutes on the phone to get the notion that WE ARE IN THE OLD MILL across to them.

Then another 5 minutes passed before I got a return call saying "we're just leaving now, we'll be there soon".
The station is 2 seconds up the road!!!
We coulda got seriously hurt, which was part of the original risk anyway, fair enough... but the police were so unbelievably stupid and slow that it made everything worse.

Mind you they didn't care that WE'D broken in!

Mind you they didn't care that WE'D broken in!

Click to expand...

Nothing they can do if you haven't ACTUALLY broken in.
I hope you enjoyed yourself anyway.

One of the pikeys seems to be sponsored by Ferrari!? What's he doing scouring abandoned buildings for metal! Schumacher would be turning in his car, if he had enough room.


Still managed to get some great pictures there.

Welcome to the forum. I hate chavs. Ferarri is chavvy too.
Best not to quote the whole report though, it can get confusing

james.s said:

Welcome to the forum. I hate chavs. Ferarri is chavvy too.
Best not to quote the whole report though, it can get confusing

Click to expand...

Sorry I just came back now to have another look at the photos, that was quite the n00b error.

I shall edit it now. Cheers!

You're a brave lady! Great pics too - I'd love to have a poke about in there.

Why is it that pikey kids always want you to photograph them? You should send the pic to the Daily Record lol.

Great report, thanks for that

r3quiem said:

Sorry I just came back now to have another look at the photos, that was quite the n00b error.

I shall edit it now. Cheers!

Click to expand...

I've comitted plenty of N00B errors in my time, don't worry about it