The Hedley-Shaw Flour Mill Ruins

There aren't too many hazards here but there is a couple like homeless people as they squat here often because it's easy to get to and it's quite. They also don't get seen or bothered but because of the homeless there could be needles or maybe even meth pipes around the ruins and because of the wooded area it's in, there is tall grass which could have ticks or other animals. The ruins are also located in downtown on a very busy street and it's also right beside a parking lot.

In this small forested area right in downtown St. Catharines lie these old limestone ruins. Most people have thought it was what remains of a support for a train bridge but it actually used to be an flour mill. The mill appears to have been built around the 1840s to the 1850s and was first owned by Captain James Norris. The name of the mill was "The Grantham Mill." But in the late 1890s it was bought by a very successful miller named Hedley Shaw who renamed it to the "Hedley-Shaw Flour Mill." He also owned the Hedley Shaw Milling Company Limited which was founded a few years after he bought the mill. He later upgraded the mill from the slow millstones to the new modern steel roller mills, which increased how much flour could be processed. In 1907, the Maple Leaf Flour Mills Company purchased the mill and around April 1910, a huge amalgamation took place where Hedley Shaw merged the remaining mills he owned to the company. The company was later renamed to the "Maple Leaf Milling Company Limited." The new company controlled dozens of grain elevators and mills across Western Canada and Ontario but unfortunately in 1915 a massive fire tore right through the multi-storey mill and because the mill was packed with highly combustible flour dust and wood framing on the inside it was entirely gutted within hours. But instead of rebuilding the mill the operations were consolidated into larger, modern plants. After that it was left completely abandoned. Since then nature has entirely reclaimed the property leaving only the limestone foundation walls, iron reinforcement brackets and a concrete slab.