Visited with Jimmy_halfway (not sure if he's on here), he did the homework on this too..
I can find very little info on the site other than the fact it closed in Oct 2005 and was used by Joseph Heap and Son as a Rice mill.
I can also find little info on the company other that it was founded in the middle of the 1800's and imported rice on it's own ships from Calcutta or Rangoon, the ships used to collect the rice on it's return trip from Oz. one of the ships was called the Antilope which was purchased in 1882.
As that is about all I can tell you, i'll tell you a bit about the explore..
Just getting into liverpool was a nightmare due to some cycle race they had going on, once i had managed to meet up with jimmy, we made our way to the mill, parking up on a single yellow line, we left the car and made our way to the access point that he had found earlyer.
Access looked simple, but once you got to the bit you couldnt see, it turned out to be a bit sketchy.
so once we had managed to get in, we we're greated with Bird shite everywhere and the smell is rank, it was so bad it makes your eyes water!
The building seams to be split in half, with a east and west wing, with a center court year which is covered with a roof, there is also a large door at each end, i would suspect at some poing trucks would drive through the building to load / unload, in one side and out of the other.
after a quick look around this area we were off to venture into the upper floors, within 30 seconds i had realised i needed a tourch and a tripod, both of which i had left in the car, a quick look about found us a much easyer access point which obviously who ever was in last had left un-secure, so we went back out, got the stuff and then went back in..
now time to have a look in the pitch black areas.
First area was the mains electricity incomming room.
Then off up the building, stopping off at different floors on the way.
Once up at the top, jimmy has a climb onto the roof, me been a bit older and clearly suffering from shrinken balls decided not to venture out of the hole, having a look about in the loft space, it was clear that some of the floors are a little ropey, they felt for the most part quite solid, but i wouldnt want to be jumping up and down.
then itg was time for the trip back down, but on the other side of the building.
Once down to the ground floor again, we managed to find the office, the door was locked but a small climband a few spiders later, we were in..
And that was about it, over all the place is fairly solid and there is lots to see, the place is like a maze though with stairs and door ways all over the place.
a couple of areas we did pas on was what looked like the large workshop area, and the lower levels, there is at least one level bellow ground level, the reason we passed of this was the Rats, there must be a million of them in there, here is a pic of one of the floors, it is like this everywhere in the building, and the muddy wet floor is full of foot prints, some of them the size of a cats foot print.
anyway, then we went back to the car, finding a parking ticket on the window! who ever didn't send the log book off when i got the car is going to be pissed off when they get the big fine as i'm not paying it..
thanks for looking
Theres a few more pictures on my flicker - http://www.flickr.com/photos/reddood/