Sat proudly beneath the rolling hills on the border of Yorkshire and Lancashire, Greenfield paper mill was once one of the industrial gems of the region. With the shift of the county’s boundary throughout the century, it is now part of the borough of Greater Manchester, but the exact date that production was formed is unknown. It is likely that on this site was one of the first concerns which the industrial revolution brought to this part of the country. The Crompton family traded under the name Ralph Crompton and Nephews, Bleachers and Papermakers of Stoneclough and Manchester, and they first began producing paper here in 1829 due to its placement along the Greenfield Brook which supplied a constant water supply necessary for mill production. Following the death of the last of the Crompton brothers, the principal trusteeship and the option of succession was offered to Robert Fletcher who had entered the firm in 1830 and whose ability had seen him rise through the ranks to manager of the bleaching department, and later the whole mill. From then on, the firm became sentimentally known throughout the decades as Robert Fletcher & Son. Fletcher controlled the mill for many years and on his death on May 17th 1865 was succeeded by his sons John and James who were in turn followed by their sons, also named John and James. In 1897, the firm was incorporated as a limited company and employed 200 people (later rising to 1000 at the height of production). For many years the mill mostly specialised in the product of high quality tissues, when the top wage in those days was 6 and a half old pence an hour, and there were 7 paper making machines which between them produced only a fraction of the paper 3 more modern machines later produced. As technology and demand both advanced rapidly, a second mill was opened on site in 1921 specialising in the production of cigarette papers and the company preceded to open sales offices in London and Manchester, with agencies in many foreign countries.
However, like the vast majority of low cost British production, the running costs and emergence of unions and foreign import had started to take its toll on the company. By 1986 the company was making a loss and was purchased by the Melton Medes Conglomerate who turned the company around and started to make a minor profit once again, but no way near the capacity that it had once known. By 2001 the company was once again failing and the decision was made to close the nearby Stoneclough Mill in Bolton. Some people were transferred to the Greenfield mill, but the company could not sustain the increasing losses paired with the pressure of added staff, and it was subsequently forced into receivership a year later and declared bankrupt.
Unlike the Stoneclough factory, which was quickly demolished and housed over to feed the insatiable demand for housing near Manchester, the Greenfield site has just been left to rot. Consequently, other than a few roof leaks, and the inevitable pigeons, the paper mill is surrounded by private farmland and the chew brook stream that feeds from the Dove Stone Reservoir that once powered the mill. Together they form a barrier against both access and future development, with no major roads leading to the land. This has meant the entire site has been kept in limbo with no clear future for well over 15 years, with almost all of the buildings sitting exactly as they were when the last shift finished. Even the mill owners house, once lived in by Robert Fletcher himself, still stands alone and disused surrounded by its bare gardens on the far eastern side of the plant – once giving his family the perfect direct gated access and views of their operations out of their windows at all times of the day.
By the time of its closure, cigarette paper had long since been sourced overseas, and the mill instead produced the inner cardboard lining for rolls of tape in their thousands, the majority of which can still be found stored above one of the rolling rooms. Once the hydropower from the reservoir was no longer sufficient for production, hundreds of diesel generators were once used before strict regulations came into place. These are all still stored in one of the factory warehouses, next to the schematic machines used to design new, more ergonomic production methods. Thousands of tools are left in the basements still labelled with personalised detail by the former employees. At its time of closure, the mill was due to be involved in the celebration of Queen Elizabeth II’s golden jubilee. Preparations were already well underway, with displays having been made to mark her tour which would see her visit the region, marking and celebrating British industry along the way. The mill closed shortly before this ever happened, so these preparations were never finished, but can still be found littered along many of the buildings, with a cartoon cut-out of the Imperial Crown sitting on the counter of one of the workbenches.
The irony of one of these photographs sits with increased sincerity when we take into account the fate of Greenfield paper mill. ‘To Cut A Long Job Short’ reads a safety slogan on one of the generators found lying in the production warehouse. In effect, this is the exact reason this factory was forced to shut down - the cheap, rushed, low quality manufacture of its foreign imported rivals. Despite having the highest standard of quality manufacture in the world across dozens of industries that were pioneered here across the centuries, the UK's once world-leading manufacturing sector has shrunk by two-thirds in the past 30 years. At its core, this was all done in the name of economic modernisation, in favour of a quick turnover rather than product longevity and skilled trade. From what we can see on the ground, all that's left behind are crumbling relics and the profits of overseas corporations. One thing is for sure, if she had been able to fulfil her visit just months earlier at such a crucial time for this long established industry, the Queen would most certainly not have been amused at the symbolic prospect of what the fate of Robert Fletchers mill stood for.
Photographed over the course of three years, this article features more than 160 images and has been a collaboration with exploring duo 'Urbandoned' - you can find an indepth video of the explore over at www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVl...
