The story of Dalton Mills was a little different than most of our other little adventures.
As we were passing the market town of Keighley on our way into the innermost depths of Yorkshire and its many decrepit buildings, this large mill had to be checked out.
Dalton Mill was built between 1866 and 1877, designed by W. Sugden for J & J Craven as a worsted mill.
The Craven family were worsted spinners and manufacturers, though there is little evidence of weaving at the complex, which concentrated on spinning.
It is said to have employed up to 2,000 workers in its heyday, but by the early twenty-first century, it had been unused for some years and was sold by John Craven in 2004 to Magna Holdings.
After some restoration work and a number of fires, it was sold to a private owner in 2013.
Source
Unlike most, it has a more recent history of being used for film props, amongst others these being the very popular Peaky Blinders and another, the less known about, Gunpowder Plot starring Kit Harrington, otherwise known as Jon Snow (Game of Thrones).
I don’t watch either, though I may check both out now after visiting this location and seeing for myself what is here.
The building I found to be imposing and full of security, at least within the main gate area which we strode through purposely ignoring the cameras to scope out the exterior.
Inside the grounds was a small antique shop and a car mechanic who told 
If I thought I was going to get in the old mill from this angle, then I was wrong. Some of it had been burnt and there was only a small part that I could access.
Through the arches, I could see a solid pallaside fencing that was going to be a problem.
A small building was accessible and quite broken down.I don't think
The window looked promising and was an obvious access point with the anti-climbing fencing now being used to ‘help’ people inside.
Talk about using your tools against you, I’m sure the owners would not be happy!
I thought better of it as the window was in full view of Mr. nosey bastard garage man who caught me leaving ‘his restricted area’; too late mate, already been there!
I figure he must be used to seeing a combination of thieves and Urban Explorers visiting. It’s either one or the other.
We left the courtyard, unaware that we were being monitored and spied on at the time, and walked around to the far side of the old mill looking for weak points.
I have no photography of this section as I don’t exactly want to advertise how we gained access to the large section at the rear of the mill.
Suffice to say after narrowly avoiding being skewered by some nasty razor wire and a little co-operation from
…’after just a few minutes our elation at access would be soured’…
So this is where the stills were taken for Peaky Blinders? It looked that way, with myself and
We had not even started looking for a way to breach the mill when a shifty looking bloke with a hi-vis vest started shuffling toward us from the far side.
Where did he come from? He looked like a manual worker but apart from a digger, there was no work going on.
…'we had just got in and then to be busted this quickly, and who was this dodgy-looking bloke?'…
‘What the fuck are you doing in here, thieves… you have broken in, I saw you scouting around looking to get in…', he screamed in a high pitched wheezy voice that had been subjected to years of tobacco abuse.
He didn’t look happy at all and things were not going as we had planned.. at all.
To be continued...
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