General Information
During the year 2000 D J Clark built a visual record of the Lancaster &
Morecambe district using photographs and information submitted by those that
feature in the pictures. The project was conducted in association with Lancaster
Museum and has been archived for future generations to look back at the district
at the turn of the new Millennium. For more information on the project visit
the information page. If you find a caption is
wrong or there is a fault with the page please e-mail D
J Clark.
Date:
April 4th 2000
Location: Lansil Industrial
Estate
Photographer's Diary
4th April - Pye Farm Feeds
"so you're Dave Clark" the receptionist greeted me. 15 minutes later Sarah Nash, the marketing Lady came rushing in full of apologies and hair all over the place madly apologising for forgetting to check her diary. I was given a whirlwind tour of the Mill by Sarah and Mark Sandgren, the Mill Director. Both seemed reasonably interested in my task but were not trying to sell me anything. After the tour I was left to roam.
There really wasn't much to it. This huge Mill was a highly efficient, clean and relatively people free money spinning business. The Mill mixed and made farm feeds, primarily for cattle and spat it out into a convoy of trucks that passed through a loading bay. The operation continued to turn 24 hours a day mon-fri and soon to be weekends as well. Pye had signed the multi million pound project to build the new mill just days before the BSE or Mad Cows Disease scare had broken. The disease had reeked havoc on the cattle farming industry and continued to affect Pye.
The weather was superb, there had been talk of Snow, but none had materialised so far. I wandered around the building, hardly seeing a soul. One empty room followed by another. It was only when I discovered the control room I could see why. Computers effectively ran everything, and two men controlled the computer system. "You will see some bagging if you go to the warehouse" Mark told me. "There might be some people working there, and that won't be for long as we are trying to find a way of bagging with a machine."
I spoke to a couple of Truck drivers. One was on his way up to Scotland, he hoped to be back by 9 PM. In about two hours I was bored, finished and impressed. This was clearly a successful business with efficiency being the key factor.
Photographer's Comments: I had intended to spend a full
day at the Mill but after a couple of hours left to wander I found I had I had
photographed most of the operation. There was far fewer people there than I
had imagined and it was surprisingly clean. One huge computer controlled most
of the production leaving a few operators and office staff to do what remained.
I was most happy with the pictures taken of the building particularly the picture
from the canal. The building is hugely impressive and still new enough to shine
in the spring sun.