UPDATE: The email from Mukesh was previously quoted here in it’s entirety, however Mukesh contacted me and requested that I remove his email from the site, which I don’t quite understand. There was a positive response from several people that they were happy he had taken action to resolve the spamming, as the comments below (which auto retrieve from twitter) show. I have removed the email from this post as requested, but that again shows a lack of understanding of all things social from Mr Quib in my opinion as it’s already in the google cache. as is the way with blog posts.

I’m really glad to see that they have responded so promptly, and have taken action to stop the spamming.  I found out last night after my blog post that apparently they use an outsourced company to handle the twitter account for them, and it is this company who have been doing the hourly spamming.

Now whilst I still stand by the premise that Mr Quib will have laid out criteria and requirements for how the account should be handled and ultimately the responsibility lays at their door, I can also appreciate that sometimes the minutia of how it should be ran can get lost along the way when not handling these things internally.

Regardless of what went wrong, I’m very pleased to see that they have re-thought their stance on twitter, and the hash tag, and ultimately that we who follow the #nefollowers tag wont be getting spammed every hour. I hope Mr Quib (and customers/partners) do well, and as Mukesh says I’m happy to put this whole thing behind me now, It’s all dealt with and done as far as I’m concerned.

~Shepy

The site, with it’s good transport links and ample water supply, was quickly taken over and re-used by the Kilbagie Chemical Manure company who obviously took pride in their manure, complaining about “the heartless swindle of manure companies selling trash and worse under the name of chemical manures”. Even despite their pride in their work, they also only managed to operate the site for little under 15 years.

In 1874 the site went into production as a mill, after a year of building and preparation from the site being acquired in 1873. In the first twenty-five years, Guardbridge Paper Mill grew from a single machine operation to being one of the largest in Scotland. The first machine was installed in 1873/4, with second, third and fourth machines added before the end of the 19th century. Machine number five was built in 1923 and number six added in 1952. The company was already exporting by the beginning of the 20th century.

From modest beginnings in 1873 producing 15-18 tons of paper per week, the company went on to produce high quality esparto grass paper at the rate of 230 tons per week in 1951. The 1960s was a period of serious modernisation but market and technological changes led to the merger, in 1967, of The Guard Bridge Paper Company Ltd with The Culter Mills Paper Company Ltd to form Culter Guard Bridge Holdings Ltd. By 1988 the company had become GB Papers Limited, a subsidiary of the James River Corporation of Richmond, Virginia, USA, and finally operated as Curtis Fine Papers.

In 2008 the plant closed, despite upturning profits, after a deal to sell some of it’s land fell through.  The close took with it 180 jobs that this tiny community could scarcely afford to lose, and in protest the workers staged a march through nearby St Andrews, though to no avail.

Two of the buildings on the site, named as Kilbagie House and Kilbagie Mill House, are listed though what will happen to the rest of the site remains to be seen.

And so, on with some pictures (all click-able to enlarge):

If you want to see the rest of the images from the day, they can be seen in my exploration gallery.

Comments and suggestions always welcome.

~Shepy

Tyne and Newcastle

Sage and Tyne Bridge

St James's Park

Central Station

High Level, Swing and Tyne Bridges

Millennium Bridge

Newcastle Quayside

Tynemouth Priory

St Mary's Lighthouse

St Mary's Asylum

The last one was a particular favourite, as it’s one of the sites I have explored for urbex many times :)

~Shepy

Sage & Millennium Bridge

Tynemouth Priory

Alnwick Castle

St Mary's Lighthouse

An awesome day, and some tasty pics, with more to come.  Cant wait to do it again :)

~Shepy

No Commission	Bird's eye view
Down the tracks	Newcastle's tribute to M.C. Escher
Just a' wandering
Riverside ruins	Circle of life
Swing Bridge
Baltic

As always, comments and constructive criticism welcome :)

~Shepy

Newcastle Skyline against the sunset
Sage & Tyne Bridge against the sunset
Tyne Bridge reflected in the Sage	Baltic from the Millennium Bridge
Millennium Bridge at night

As ever, constructive criticism welcome :)

~Shepy

We ended up just catching the Golden Hour at Prudhoe Castle.  Here are a few of the pics:

Prudhoe Castle At Sunset
Reflections of Prudhoe Castle	Castle Wall at Prudhoe Castle
Prudhoe Castle Lake

As ever, comments and constructive criticism welcome :)

~Shepy

Operating with a couple of friends, I’ve spent most of this week pulling together the site for the new business, so if you’re looking for a Newcastle Wedding Photographer , someone to do a shoot with your family or perhaps some portrait shots for yourself then go to the site and have a look at our portfolio and packages :)

Look forward to working with some of you hopefully :)

~Shepy

Looking down onto Saltburn Pier

Under Saltburn Pier

Cheers for looking :)

~Shepy