® Andy
ClioSport Club Member
Illiad V6 255
Well others seemed to have set the lead by posting their exploring shots, and given the amount I explore I'm clearly going to follow suit 
so ...
Dairy Farmers of Britain (DFOB), was an agricultural cooperative that used to supply over one billion litres of milk a year, collected from its 1800 member farmers, making up about 10% of the UK milk market. The past tense is used since unfortunately DFOB went into receivership in June '09. The dairy in Drayton, Portsmouth, was one of its multiple sites around the country, though it was actually closed earlier in around March '09 as part of attempts to restructure. Around 60 people lost their jobs.
It appears that DFOB applied for planning on the site in '08 to build 150 houses to let them sell it at significant value, but that planning was refused.
I can't find any further history online on the site, but what is apparent is that the dairy has existed for a significant period and prior to DFOB since the brickwork by the gates was for SCD. The buildings felt maybe 30s or 40s era at their core, though had been extended and changed plenty. Location wise the dairy was surrounded by older residential properties and the railway to the south, so it wasn't the most obviously place for quite a large site!
Anyhows, since closure the site has been stripped officially with most of the equipment auctioned and removed, and then unofficially by a swarm of pikeys. Local chavs have had a go too. Ultimately though the site is pretty well secured, and it took a tiny bit of looking to get inside. However, a side effect was that I was uncharacteristically on edge since being on my own and with a solitary and non-immediate point of entry/exit I didn't want to run into anybody else!
So a stripped dairy, but this one did have one redeeming feature ...
... because roofs don't get much cooler than this one! Shame the light was s**t given rain and cloud.
Everywhere you went ... you couldn't get away from the awesome domes in the curved roof and natural daylight ... this was some scummy storage area!
C'est moi!
This was a bonkers office/computer area squeezed up top ...
... with a fatal flaw!
The first half of the site I visited seemed to be more to do with packaging and distribution. Ironically loosing their Co-op contract was one of the nails in DFOB's coffin!
Like the curved roof, the front of the building had curves too!
Natural daylight everywhere ... office stairs ...
... and other half above the shop floor!
There be pikeys about
Since I wanted to stay fleet of foot, I shot everything hand held hence the ISO 3200! Even where they'd installed suspended ceilings and it seemed very dark, light still leaked in from above!
And then across to the other half of the site ... a similar building at its core, but a much rougher and less clean vibe!
A slight smell of stale milk, and I swear I could smell cows too!
Some sort of testing lab ... air conditioned and behind two sets of doors at each entrance.
Lots of monster fridges!
And up to an unexpected bonus floor!
Loved the use of glass blocks to take advantage of the natural light into more enclosed spaces!
And if you were in any doubt about it being a dairy ...
And finally a few damp miserable externals ...
so ...Dairy Farmers of Britain (DFOB), was an agricultural cooperative that used to supply over one billion litres of milk a year, collected from its 1800 member farmers, making up about 10% of the UK milk market. The past tense is used since unfortunately DFOB went into receivership in June '09. The dairy in Drayton, Portsmouth, was one of its multiple sites around the country, though it was actually closed earlier in around March '09 as part of attempts to restructure. Around 60 people lost their jobs.
It appears that DFOB applied for planning on the site in '08 to build 150 houses to let them sell it at significant value, but that planning was refused.
I can't find any further history online on the site, but what is apparent is that the dairy has existed for a significant period and prior to DFOB since the brickwork by the gates was for SCD. The buildings felt maybe 30s or 40s era at their core, though had been extended and changed plenty. Location wise the dairy was surrounded by older residential properties and the railway to the south, so it wasn't the most obviously place for quite a large site!
Anyhows, since closure the site has been stripped officially with most of the equipment auctioned and removed, and then unofficially by a swarm of pikeys. Local chavs have had a go too. Ultimately though the site is pretty well secured, and it took a tiny bit of looking to get inside. However, a side effect was that I was uncharacteristically on edge since being on my own and with a solitary and non-immediate point of entry/exit I didn't want to run into anybody else!
So a stripped dairy, but this one did have one redeeming feature ...
... because roofs don't get much cooler than this one! Shame the light was s**t given rain and cloud
.Everywhere you went ... you couldn't get away from the awesome domes in the curved roof and natural daylight ... this was some scummy storage area!
C'est moi!
This was a bonkers office/computer area squeezed up top ...
... with a fatal flaw!
The first half of the site I visited seemed to be more to do with packaging and distribution. Ironically loosing their Co-op contract was one of the nails in DFOB's coffin!
Like the curved roof, the front of the building had curves too!
Natural daylight everywhere ... office stairs ...
... and other half above the shop floor!
There be pikeys about
Since I wanted to stay fleet of foot, I shot everything hand held hence the ISO 3200! Even where they'd installed suspended ceilings and it seemed very dark, light still leaked in from above!
And then across to the other half of the site ... a similar building at its core, but a much rougher and less clean vibe!
A slight smell of stale milk, and I swear I could smell cows too!
Some sort of testing lab ... air conditioned and behind two sets of doors at each entrance.
Lots of monster fridges!
And up to an unexpected bonus floor!
Loved the use of glass blocks to take advantage of the natural light into more enclosed spaces!
And if you were in any doubt about it being a dairy ...
And finally a few damp miserable externals ...
