# Forest Mills, Nottingham - Various 09



## 85 Vintage (Mar 27, 2010)

I first noticed this place sometime in 2008 when I first got into taking pictures of derelict buildings, but always put it off due to it's location and the fact I was a lone explorer at the time.

I visited a few times with Kaputnik, joined by Gangeox and Neosea on one of the visits. On our first visit couldn't find a away into the building itself so that was wasted really. I then remembered seeing it on another forum and emailed the guy that went, even though it was a good year after he went, he replied and gave me a few pointers 

I couldn't find much about it on the internet at the time, so went to the local studies section of the Central Library and found a small mention in a booklet. As it turns out it's the same info as others have got on their websites, they must just be better at hunting than me 



> Forest Mill was established in the 1840's by John Lawson Thackeray whose Grandfather Joseph Thackeray, came to Nottingham from Manchester in the 1780's, possibly for the same reason as Richard Arkwright and James Hargreaves. The reason being the outbreak of machine breaking in Lancashire.
> 
> John Lawson Thackeray was Chairman of the Radford Board. The Radford Board was a body of men who organised local government before Radford became part of the City of Nottingham in 1877. He lived in The Park area of Nottingham and became an Alderman before becoming Mayor of Nottingham in 1854 and again in 1866.
> 
> ...



Over the years, the mill site has been split, being used by firms for many uses. From production of underwear and clothes (if you ever go and get into the office like building and see the state of some of the designs for the company there, it will make you wonder why they bothered  ), car hire, kitchen making, a recording studion in the basement of the office building, electrical repair, to 'wheelbase' a motor project for young people who are not in mainstream education and finally my favourite, Pow Prostitue Outreach Workers. If you ever go and get into that section, look through one of the small purple booklets, you will laugh 

Another intersting thing I found whilst looking at the old Ordnance Survey maps was that there was Public House at the side of the mill, up until 1949 at least. From what I could tell from the the map, this is where the office like building is now situated.

On with the pics, they're in no particular order




























































































Mr Fox 





The phone wasn't there, so i improvised lol





It's a good place to have a wander round, so will be some good pics from the others


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## Neosea (Mar 27, 2010)

Great photos mate. This is a cool explore, thanks for the invite


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## diehardlove (Mar 28, 2010)

nice work mate,its a bloody good explore did you see the made up tramps bed upstairs complete with polish bible,i about craped myself when walked in that room lol


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## 85 Vintage (Mar 28, 2010)

Neosea said:


> Great photos mate. This is a cool explore, thanks for the invite



Cheers and yes it is. The exit was fun, a few seconds later and there would've been a lot more questions 

Get some of your pics up, especially the one of the vanish stick, i'm sure yours is better than mine.



diehardlove said:


> nice work mate,its a bloody good explore did you see the made up tramps bed upstairs complete with polish bible,i about craped myself when walked in that room lol



Yep, we saw that room, thought it was a clever use for a roll of fabric, didn't go in and see the polish bible though.


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## 85 Vintage (Mar 28, 2010)

Forgot to add, there was a fire at the site a week or so ago. Not in the main part but, but the corner building of the two building you can't get into, the two connected by the walkway.

News Article Here


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## Neosea (Mar 28, 2010)

More images here


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## Neosea (Mar 29, 2010)

85 Vintage said:


> Cheers and yes it is. The exit was fun, a few seconds later and there would've been a lot more questions
> 
> Get some of your pics up, especially the one of the vanish stick, i'm sure yours is better than mine.



Yes the exit was fun and the timing was spot on, but she sure was sweet in that uniform.


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## Kaputnik (Mar 29, 2010)

Some good pics you two, i really liked this place as it was varied and had several very different parts to it, a car valeting firm, the Wheelbase project, which tried to keep local young offenders off the streets and get them interested in tinkering with cars instead, a recording studio/band practice area that local bands could hire, an electrical repair business, which had various items left on the shelf with tags still attached, a bit of everything at this place!
Turntables and porn...





1987 TV listings...





Ladybird books! i used to have a couple of the ones shown here...










Some Tit playing around with bra padding in the former lingerie makers...





















the rooftop water tower again, showing evidence of the original roofline, removed after a previous fire made it unsafe...






Thanks for looking.


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## NobodyGirl (Mar 29, 2010)

Kaputnik said:


> .



This had me giggling!!! Love the Goggles mr, they suit you!!  Great explore, great place! nice one guys!


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## Neosea (Mar 29, 2010)

Nice one Kaputnik, cool photos.


Maybe you will start a new fashion trend with that padding


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## The Kaiser (Mar 30, 2010)

Nice work mate, it's a great place, first went there a year ago and it remains my most visted site. (as I used to live round the corner).
I was meant to go back on Sunday, but sadly the plan fell thru.

I also read about the history in that small booklet in the library, the Notts Archives also have the orriginal plans of the various extentions of the site over the past 130years, well worth a look if you've a spare few hours.


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