# Broadford Works, Some time in 2009 with some chums



## Bryag (Oct 30, 2009)

This was the culmination of a rather interesting day, and held many surprises for us. Mostly unwelcome surprises, but there are the breaks. Visited with several others, whose names I will omit to protect the innocent (and the guilty) If the rest of my co-conspirators feel so inclined, please feel free to add your pics.

I will not bother with any history, as others have been here many more times and told the story better than I ever could. If you want to know more, please use the search function. Also known as "Richard's Textile Mill"

This appeared to be part of the training academy





















Profane scales (not for weighing profanity)




For information, this floor was disgusting, we encountered several examples of human excrement. It was enough to make you boke!











This was my first foray with 35mm film, the upside being my 17-40 lens was actually 17 at the wide side















I find the sky's a bit washed out compared to digital, but is was 200 ISO film I was shooting on, I did find it rather grainy. I am currently shooting on 64 ISO, but that is rather pricey





Not a huge fan, but found this graff rather cool










The joys of wide angle on full frame










More washed out skies










Hosepipe tower (one of)










I hope you enjoy, I/We kind of did ​


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## lost (Oct 31, 2009)

Cracking photos Bryag. I didn't take many, and those that I did take were ruined by the rubbish wide angle attachment.
I wish I had the patience for 35mm.


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## rjg_scotland (Oct 31, 2009)

Great photos, brought back some good and bad memories of that day haha . I'll get round to going through my photos and adding them to here at some point .


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## klempner69 (Oct 31, 2009)

I love these..the 3rd from last looks like a scene from the Sweeney.


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## Gorecki (Oct 31, 2009)

ACE!!!!
Would you believe I've never seen those scales before! 

I'll add some of my pictures if you don't mind!!

But first some news..... I think I've told a few folk but last month I got in touch with the city council archive department regarding the room filled with the old leather bound books dating back to the late 1800's. 
Since the recent fire, I was worried that these would go in the same way so I felt I had to do something to save them.... 

After a few emails, I received this last week: 

Dear Laura

You may recall that in September we spoke and exchanged emails regarding records that were languishing within the old Broadford Works (ex Richards Mill) off Maberley Street. I just thought I would let you know that on Tuesday of this week myself and a couple of colleagues removed a transit van's worth of records with the owner's permission. This included a number of the older volumes that you sent me a photograph of. We didn't take them all as they were mostly very detailed records of daily production at the mill or wages paid - in a case like this it is standard archival practice to select a sample only. One of the other offices contained more modern material from the 1960s through to the 1990s.

Removing the older volumes was a very messy job and they will now need to be cleaned by a professional conservator before they can be handled.

Thanks once again for your interest in this All best wishes, Dave

City Archivist
Aberdeen City Archives 



This is the said room: 






And some other pics from the day =] 





















oh yeah, and this is where I waited forever to scare you guys, but I think you all seen me first before I seen you!!!


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## RichardB (Oct 31, 2009)

I must have explored a different mill, I hardly remember anything in your pictures.


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## Bryag (Oct 31, 2009)

klempner69 said:


> I love these..the 3rd from last looks like a scene from the Sweeney.


 Thank you, kind sir. Now you come to mention it, it does have that gritty look. And yes I am ALSO old enough to remember The Sweeney.

Gorecki, good on you saving those books. Just goes to prove that sometimes the proper channels do some good.The Scales were in one of the floors above the pictures with the blue/yellow pillars. Myself and Melvin went up to the top. Quite alot oif evidence of habitation I had never seen any of this block before, it just seemed to be off route Thanks for adding your pics, hopefully RJG and Richard will weigh in with some too. BTW, your bright red urbexing camo was perhaps not appropriate if your intention was to scare

Richard, most of my pics were taken before we met up, so whoever chapperoned you (Ali I suspect) may have avoided this one

Lost, shame your pics did not come out so well, I try to avoid wangle adapters, as you are dependant on the quality of the glass being as good as your lens. Zimbob has one, i do not know if it is good or bad, but he seems to like it.


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## zimbob (Oct 31, 2009)

Nice, the film shots have come out well 

Sorry I missed this one, sounded fun 



Bryag said:


> .... wangle adapters.... Zimbob has one, i do not know if it is good or bad, but he seems to like it.



Mais non! I _used_ to have one for my 350D, it wasn't the best.....


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## lost (Oct 31, 2009)

I think the only way to go is with a genuine wide angle adapter, they tend to be decent. I've spotted a genuine Sony one which has the same thread as my camera-shite, hopefully that'll save the day.


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## skittles (Oct 31, 2009)

Lovely building, is there plans to convert them?

Great photos, I like the 35mm shots.


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## mr_bones (Nov 1, 2009)

Great stuff Bryag, your film shots really capture the place well. Shame it's all so smashed.


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## Bryag (Nov 1, 2009)

Thanks Mr B

I bought an EOS 5 from "popular online auction site" for £30, and it operates and meters almost exactly the same as my 40D, but without the crop factor my 17-40 is a really wide lens. It was ideal for some of these shots. I took some digital too, but they were with a cheaper longer lens, so I only posted the film shots.

Incidentally, Tesco do processing onto disc for £1.98, and it appears to be OK. I bought a roll of ISO 64 with processing paid for £12  but I have not finished off all 36 exposures yet, at that cost I have been a little more careful with my shots.


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## Neosea (Nov 1, 2009)

Love the contrasting colours between those buildings.


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## wolfism (Nov 2, 2009)

Liking the grain and muted colours of your film shots, Bryag. Shame that Broadford is getting so smashed up … the owner should be forced either to get on with the redevelopment or hand it over to someone else.


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## Bryag (Nov 2, 2009)

wolfism said:


> Liking the grain and muted colours of your film shots, Bryag. Shame that Broadford is getting so smashed up … the owner should be forced either to get on with the redevelopment or hand it over to someone else.



Rather than send in the Rozzers to arrest those not equiiped with my guile and cunning
He (the owner) was there on the day, funny, he was not so quick to react when the place was on fire. I believe there was a heated exchange between HIM and one of my compadre's, of course, I was not there.....

The grain is down to the 200ISO film, the muted colours- to be fair- could be down to the tesco processing (reasonable quality agfa film bought from Morissons in AberD) but the only post-processing I am guilty of is resizing and tagging


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## james.s (Nov 3, 2009)

Nice! Has anyone climbed that tower? It looks inviting.


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## lost (Nov 3, 2009)

I climbed it a few years ago. I've no idea if anybody's climbed it since.


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## rjg_scotland (Nov 3, 2009)

lost said:


> I climbed it a few years ago. I've no idea if anybody's climbed it since.



Hahaha. Right, I'm more or less done with the fannying about - I'll perhaps sort my pics out from the trip soon, which may or may not answer your question James.


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## wolfism (Nov 3, 2009)

I've had dealings with the putative owner … won't go into detail here …



Bryag said:


> The grain is down to the 200ISO film, the muted colours- to be fair- could be down to the tesco processing (reasonable quality agfa film bought from Morissons in AberD) but the only post-processing I am guilty of is resizing and tagging


I love Agfa film – tend to use positive (slide) film though – and the muted colours are its signature, compared to the saturated colours you get with Fuji.


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## rjg_scotland (Nov 4, 2009)

As this is also from some time earlier this year, I thought I may as well tag them on here .


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## Bryag (Nov 4, 2009)

wolfism said:


> I love Agfa film – tend to use positive (slide) film though – and the muted colours are its signature, compared to the saturated colours you get with Fuji.



Aha, as a novice at the film malarkey, that is news to me. TBH I never really thought about different film having different characteristics, but now it has been brought to my attention it is actually obvious. Apart from the noise I am reasonable happy with the results. The skies do appear very washed out, so I am keen to see the results with the 64 ISO Kodak. Fireworks display tomorrow night, so will try and finish the roll off then

Cracking shots Rjg, particularly loving the high ones. I wish my elbow had been up to it. I recently climbed the ladder inside a empty fuel tank in Invergordon, it was pretty high too with no safety cages or platforms. OK it was not as high as this, but the individual ladder was quite a bit longer than each section of the hose tower. I don't think I'll be going back to climb this any time soon.


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## Alir147 (Nov 4, 2009)

nice shots there!!  musta had a pretty big tripod to get them last pictures! 

and who added that tag to this thread?!?!


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## rjg_scotland (Nov 4, 2009)

Alir147 said:


> musta had a pretty big tripod to get them last pictures!



Actually it was a giant monopod.


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## lost (Nov 4, 2009)

Tag you say? 
Great photos. That monopod is pretty giant.


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## james.s (Nov 4, 2009)

Yay! Tower climb! Nice shots


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## Bryag (Nov 4, 2009)

Alir147 said:


> nice shots there!!  musta had a pretty big tripod to get them last pictures!
> 
> and who added that tag to this thread?!?!



Well it wisnae me, 'cos I wasn't (I don't think it can be done by phone)

It might have been Rjg, but he, like me was also an escapee


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## rjg_scotland (Nov 4, 2009)

Wasnae me!  The tag was on this thread the first time I looked at it IIRC...


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## Bryag (Nov 4, 2009)

Well I don't think I did it, but I have done stranger things when drunk...................... perhaps a mod can enlighten?


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## Pyroninja (Nov 5, 2009)

Ah RJ yeah that was a helluva monopod you brought along that day...was most impressed!

Great shot's it gave you to, hadn't seen any of them yet.

I think I shot the whole place using only the 50mm so yeah the shots are a little tight...Here's a few anyway;



















There's a person in this shot...





Castle Greyskull





A bad man at the window

















Alcohol problem in the female toilets?


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## Lightbuoy (Nov 5, 2009)

Excellent photos Bryag 

Gorecki -hats off to ya for getting at least a sample of those old books saved! 

To everyone else who's put up their pics -thanks -makes for great viewing!


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## sqwasher (Nov 5, 2009)

Great photos from all you guys & gals! Well done with getting the books saved.


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## Bryag (Nov 5, 2009)

Cheers Lightbouy and Squasher

Good to meet you Pyroninja, you got some cracking shots too. I never saw Skeltor, what a find. It looks like his sword is coming up through the floor to the left


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## Pyroninja (Nov 6, 2009)

Aye it was good to meet you to Bryag, well good to meet everybody haha I'd only been out with Celo and RJ before so aye nice to meet you all  

Yeah you've got some brilliant shots yourself, as RichardB said it looks like you'd explored another mill, I think I managed to miss most of the site haha!


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## Alir147 (Nov 6, 2009)

may as well add in my ones whilst we're at it! 











































someone's clock in card from 1999






and finally, the spot where we 'chilled out' after a long day of exploring!


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## lost (Nov 6, 2009)

That was a cracking place to "chill out", so secluded.


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## Bryag (Nov 6, 2009)

lost said:


> That was a cracking place to "chill out", so secluded.



:biglaugh::biglaugh::biglaugh::biglaugh::biglaugh::biglaugh:


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## cozone (Dec 9, 2009)

Bryag said:


>


That's great ... though it doesn't look anything like Aberdeen, if you know what I mean?


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## Alir147 (Dec 9, 2009)

cozone said:


> That's great ... though it doesn't look anything like Aberdeen, if you know what I mean?



yeah you're right. I live round the corner from here, and it's like a separate wee world inside broadford works.


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## Pincheck (Dec 9, 2009)

Ello...Ello....Ello then, whats all this then a broadford feast 

tsktsktsk bad people that you are 

Nice pictures everyone


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## rjg_scotland (Dec 9, 2009)

Yes, a feast. It wasn't a clusterf*ck, honest...


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## lost (Dec 9, 2009)

I think it's the least difficult location to research, in fact a basic search brings up the co-ordinates on the first page.
0/10 for effort.


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## Gorecki (Dec 10, 2009)

I saw someone chuck a double bed over the wall tonight !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
EH!
Maybe it for Giles to sleep on


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