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Urban explorer's pictures show inside abandoned Aylesford Newsprint

Is the sight of your own four walls becoming duller and duller each week? If so, read on as we've decided to take a look inside somewhere which you might find more interesting.

Each week we're digging in the archives to find pictures of places in Kent that you will recognise from the outside, but perhaps have never seen from the inside.

How the Aylesford Newsprint site used to look. Picture: Andy Jones
How the Aylesford Newsprint site used to look. Picture: Andy Jones

This week we are featuring the former Aylesford Newsprint site.

For almost a century Aylesford Newsprint was a jewel in Kent’s economy, but now it sits abandoned as a reminder of a declining industry.

In the early part of 2015, the huge site off Station Road closed, which meant 290 people lost their jobs.

The shock announcement came just weeks after workers were offered pay rises, and in 2013 the company had recorded a turnover of £139 million.

But in a statement, administrators said the business had been making a loss for several years and could not continue.

Pictures of the former abandoned Aylesford Newsprint site. Picture: www.28dayslater.co.uk
Pictures of the former abandoned Aylesford Newsprint site. Picture: www.28dayslater.co.uk

The rise of digital media and a flooded marketplace were blamed for the closure.

However, because the site was derelict, urban explorers gained access to the plant, bypassing security to navigate the corridors and giant machinery rooms and documenting their experience with a series of fascinating photographs.

An explorer calling himself ‘Maniac’ posted an in-depth report into the trip on online forum 28 Days Later.

Maniac said the exploration had been a while in the making, with several previous fruitless trips to the site.

Security at the paper mill was high, with regular patrols of guards with dogs keeping potential intruders away.

At 28 metres high and 100 metres long the storage room could hold up to 10,000 tonnes of paper. Picture: www.28dayslater.co.uk
At 28 metres high and 100 metres long the storage room could hold up to 10,000 tonnes of paper. Picture: www.28dayslater.co.uk

Maniac took advantage of a quiet period and explored the mill with another user known as KentUrbex.

They charted the paper making process through pictures, from the warehouse where most of the recycled print in the South East ended up to the gigantic production machine, PM14.

PM14 was 100m long and 10m high and paper used to rush through it at 60mph.

The product would have then transferred to an even larger storage facility, measuring 100m by 28m and with room for 10,000 tonnes of paper.

In January 2016, a spokesman for administrators KPMG said W & S Recycling had bought the two paper mills, equipment and buildings to sell and would not restart paper production.

Aylesford Newsprint closed several years ago and the site has now been demolished. Picture: www.28dayslater.co.uk
Aylesford Newsprint closed several years ago and the site has now been demolished. Picture: www.28dayslater.co.uk

Much of the fixtures and fittings from the site later moved to China.

After closure, receivers sold much of the equipment to a company there.

In a six-month operation, a total of 450 containers of machinery and equipment were shipped 12,000 miles by sea to Beiliang, a port near the North Korean border where they were re-assembled as a mill.

In November last year, speculation mounted a buyer had been found for the site.

There were reports that Panattoni, the largest developer of logistics facilities in Europe, has reached a deal with receivers to purchase the site for £75m.

PM14 produced massive rolls of paper. Picture: www.28dayslater.co.uk
PM14 produced massive rolls of paper. Picture: www.28dayslater.co.uk

The 100-acre plot between the M20 and the River Medway has been derelict since closed in 2015.

The land is dedicated for employment use in Tonbridge and Malling council’s Local Plan.

The site has since been demolished.

Aerial photos showing the demolished newsprint Picture: Ady Kerry
Aerial photos showing the demolished newsprint Picture: Ady Kerry

Click here to see more more pictures of the site.

Read more: All the latest news from Maidstone

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