industrial

This is the fourth and final report covering four of the seven abandoned whaling stations on the UK dependency of South Georgia in the Southern Ocean, 8,000 miles from Britain. This time it is the whaling station in Prince Olav Harbour. I’ve included a map in this report so that the relative...

Introduction Another mill me and @JakeV50 visited on our recent trip to the Manchester area. We didn’t know what to expect with this one, as we pinned it years ago and decided to visit it as we were only around 10 minutes away. We were pleasantly surprised by its remaining features despite being...

In my South Georgia post of 4th February, I outlined a little of the history of whaling operations on the island. I also covered my trip to the island in more detail and photos of the whaling station at Grytviken. There were seven whaling stations operating on the island for various periods of...

In my South Georgia post of 4th February, I outlined a little of the history of whaling operations on the island. I also covered my trip to the island in more detail and photos of the whaling station at Grytviken. There were seven whaling stations operating on the island for various periods of...

During November 2024, I went on an expedition cruise from Montevideo to South Georgia and Antarctica. South Georgia is a British dependency in the South Atlantic Ocean and comprises a very remote rocky island approximately 100 miles in length and 20 miles in width. Its remoteness makes it a...

Introduction @JakeV50 and I have explored numerous pumping stations and water infrastructure sites over the last couple of years, searching for interesting finds. While many are undocumented, they’re often not the most exciting locations due to their size. Some visits were unsuccessful, others...

Introduction This site has been around for years, I was very surprised when I found out it had been disused since the seventies, it has fared very well. It has been posted numerous times before but became quite popular again last year and decided to take a look with @Wastelandr. He had visited...

Introduction Myself and @JakeV50 spent a couple of days in the Manchester area looking at some old mills, amongst other stuff. Although relatively successful, the weekend was cut short due to car troubles. I suppose this report is more of an update of a place which has seen much better days...

Introduction I have always seen this small selection of buildings from the main road when visiting Sculthorpe, but stupidly have always disregarded them as empty buildings without taking a look. @Mikeymutt mentioned that he had had a look and discovered that the buildings had some nice pumping...

This was a former cod factory founded in the 1950s, ‘Seca do Bacalhau’ meaning ‘Dry of Cod’ in Portuguese. It’s a large site with a lighthouse, water tower, fish farming area, and living quarters for the workers. There was a documentary made of the women workers who worked there, mostly in slave...

Introduction A site that has been covered on here for many years, but only knew about it in recent times with an influx of more recent reports, me and @JakeV50 were keen to see it because of the lovely decay within. Information & History Opening in 1951, the factory was designed with a barrel...

History The factory was established by John Needham in 1846. In its heyday in the 1930s the factory manufactured covers for almost all parts of Britain and other countries, and employed thousands of workers. The plant closed in 1979. They made a lot of manhole covers turns out, which are used...

Introduction This is one of those large-scale ‘classic’ UK sites that I have always wanted to tick off the list and have always had in the back of my head, a bit like how Fletcher’s and RAE Bedford were for me. The main draw for me was the engine room with the large engines in situ, but was...

Introduction Me and @JakeV50 had a small pump house pinned near to the Cantley Sugar Factory site so decided to have a look for it. Turns out, it wasn’t there anymore but along the way, we found a couple of nice little pump houses. Information & History Cantley Sugar Factory is a large...

Introduction Back in December between Christmas and New Year, myself and @JakeV50 embarked on a 4-day trip where we did some places in Manchester, Cheshire, Lincolnshire amongst others. It turned out to be fairly unsuccessful, with the only noteworthy places being Fletchers and this lovely...

Introduction Myself, @KPUrban_ and @Wastelandr met up several weeks back to cover a few places around Cambridgeshire, the primary motive of the trip was to visit Mullard’s Observatory but we also spent a few hours at this old mill site. I mentioned it to KP as I found it on OS Maps a while back...

Introduction First of all, I’d like to say thanks to admin for organising such a great meet last Saturday. I enjoyed it from start to finish, met some great people, and had some excellent conversations. The after-party was unexpected and bloody brilliant. As me and Jake were already going to...

Introduction The previous challenges of climbing and high security made it seem unlikely for me to ever see Fletcher’s. Fortunately, towards the end of last year, there was a period where security appeared to ease up a bit. Me and @JakeV50 decided to take advantage of this and finally give it a...

Introduction Another nice little pump house found by the so-called 'pump people' duo :D . It’s a fairly trivial one but it hasn’t been documented at all online so thought it would still be worthy posting it, rather than just leaving the photos on my computer for no one to ever see. Information...

A great local explore here, a huge paper mill shut for 27 years. In terms of history, it really doesn't get any better than this comment from Mark Stores, somebody who actually worked there: A photo of the active site can be seen on this Flickr page with the following quote from member Gordon...