Fletchers mill Greenfield Report 26/02/09

[thesmurfinator]

This Mill was originally built as a woollen mill by Mr. Bottomley around 1780. Bottomley’s Mill stood on a 500 acre estate and employed several hundred workers..
Robert Fletcher & Son (Greenfield) came into operation in 1921, and operated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from then until it shut in July 2001.
Some of the workers lived in the row of stone cottages at the back of the mill, in fact some of the old workers still live there today.
When the mill got into trouble in the late 90's a new owner was sought. Eventually a businessman bought the company along with the factory buildings and the "Forty Row" the cottages at the back.
The workers at the factory, many who had worked their entire lives at the mill breathed a sigh of releif, but it was to be short-lived. The "businessman" vanished, along with the companies money - what little it had left - and also the pension fund.
The factory was closed onvery short notice when it was clear what had happened. The ex-employees still don't have a pension.

Visited with MisterJK - Thanks hunni

I was trying out my new cam, and my first go at lightpainting too, so some good and some not so good...
I've tried to include stuff that I haven't seen twenty times on reports already, plenty more on my site and more to come when I've finished editing....

[sqwasher]

Cool-looks like your doing great with your new cam. This place always looks good & yes you got some new bits & bobs!

[thesmurfinator]

Thanks hunni

[BB]

Cool stuff there Smurf

[boxfrenzy]

These are nice pictures. I need to get there and see this. It looks great. Love the Cambridge Dial. Good work.

[skin]

Nice place and nice pics. Well worth the visit.

[Rebel]

I've been in contact with some of the workers and they claim that an arrab bought the plant and took the pension fund to invest in india. The businesses were given an interest free loan to repay the loan however the trustees are still waiting for their money back. The land was planned to be levelled and used for housing. I read somewhere that the ex workers were trying to get the Virgin Group to buy the site and put it back into production because all the industry in Greenfield had been lost and there was nowhere for the people of Greenfield to work. The place is really filling up with pigeon shit now Nice selection!

[thesmurfinator]

yes he was an arrab and yes he ran off with the money - including the pension fund. the housing plans have been knocked back by the council several times, yet they said they would be willing to consider planning apps for a leisure site !?
As i aid at the beginning, some of the ex-workers still live in "forty row", the houses along the back, when the arrab took over he increased their rent by about 200% they took him to court and got it reduced. He is currently paying for restoration and remedial work on the houses as the council otld him if he didn't do it the would issue a compulsory purchase order on them........