Abandoned Bradford mill left just as it was decades ago - 'It's like the workforce left one day and never returned'

Twine is still wrapped around looms, a half-typed letter or document still sits in a typewriter, coats and keys hang on racks, and pens and paper are strewn across desks, alongside decades-old computers and big office telephones.

A sweeping staircase leads to a boardroom, where you could imagine woolmen of the 19th and early 20th centuries discussing trade and hammering out business deals in leather-backed chairs.

In the factory spaces, still looms and piles of fabric stand in silence where once the deafening sound of machinery would have filled the air.

Everything is as the workers left the place - never to return. Today it stands with equipment and furnishings intact, like a museum filled with relics of the city's past.

In these fascinating photographs, Mark has documented the various workspaces of this disused Bradford mill building, the identity and location of which have not been revealed. These images capture the eerie beauty of a place once bustling with life, now a relic of Bradford’s industrial past.

Mark writes:

Born and bred in Bradford, I am a professional photographer and author of 12 books, including four specifically dedicated to my home town.

I have as you may gather a particular affection for the old city. Over the last twelve years, as Bradford has evolved quite quickly, I have with my camera collected a substantial library of images capturing the changes whilst my focus has always remained with documenting the remains of the rich industrial history and how the new changes interact.

In a city where the bulk of empty buildings have either been trashed or set on fire, I never imagined for one minute that Bradford would be the keeper of one of the most magnificent secret time warps of a mostly forgotten industry.

In photography terms this is the equivalent of hitting the photography lottery jackpot

Sitting silently and unassuming watching over Bradford, this mill resembles a workplace where you could imagine the workforce quite literally went home one night and just never returned.

Coats still hang where they were left, personal items litter the place. The looms still have their twine loaded and attached to the last pieces of work still waiting to be finished and shipped off to the once-thriving market for the Bradford wool and cloth industry. Storerooms full of quality cloth sit with labels awaiting patiently the tailors that would work their magic producing the very best quality suits, that made Bradford the world’s number one in the textile industry.

As you wander silently between various departments, arriving at the impressive boardroom, you realise just how successful this company was.

The room resembles the film set for M’s office from a Bond movie with its plush padded leather doors. The grand staircase still sporting the expensive wool carpets that need only a quick hoover are complemented by the ornate cast balustrade that would be at home in the grandest of houses, leading to a lift that Mrs Slocombe from the vintage sitcom Are You Being Served? would have absolutely approved of.

In a world of change, this little time capsule is a rare reminder of our not so long ago past and a true gem that is Bradford and proud of it!

* Mark Davis’s books include Asylum - A Look Inside The Pauper Lunatic Asylum; Secret Bradford and In The Footsteps of the Brontes.

For more about his work go to www.mark-davis-photography.co.uk