industrial

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...

Introduction After seeing @mingerocket's post on this site a couple of years ago, I decided to take a look myself while in the area. I’ve always liked the look of it with the electric motors and pumps being in great condition, and I like the pipes coming out of it going into the river...

I'm not a fan of Google but one thing they do well is Maps. Scouting around Ilkeston in Google Maps revealed an unusual pill shaped building in the middle of a wooded area in Ilkeston. Further investigation made it irresistable to go take a look. I'm built for comfort and not as slender as...

Introduction Another old Fenland pumping station I have been meaning to visit for quite some time now but I never got around to doing it. Finally decided to visit and commit to the long walk to get to it, turns out the walk wasn’t quite as long as I thought it would be. Information & History...

Introduction Another gem hidden away in the depths of the Norfolk countryside discovered whilst trawling through both old and modern maps. Being only a 40-minute drive away, I decided to head off to see what I could find, and it’s certainly a nice one with lots of see! Visited with @JakeV50...

Introduction Me and @Wastelandr recently met up to cover a couple of places in Essex, this one was initially seen as a bit of a filler location thinking it would be sealed or empty but to our surprise, it had some nice old equipment within, in addition to old paperwork amongst other nice little...

Introduction I had a few days off work so this week I decided to embark on another pump adventure heading towards The Fens. Unfortunately, like many recent visits, I didn’t have much luck. I’ve been keen to try the Oxborough station for a while now as it has been on my radar for years, even...

I've been out of the game for a few months due to my exploring partner having had a surgery, but now that he's good again... back at it! The one who's not doing so well is my camera, which took a fall inside a mine and has never been the same, so some shots might be a bit out of focus. Can't...