Castle Cement Padeswood, now operating under the Heidelberg Cement company, will be instantly recognizable to any locals for the uproar it caused a few years ago with the advent of the most modern cement kiln in the UK, Kiln 4. The kiln was reported to be set up to run on alternative fuels such as car tyres and various plastics and as such
caused uproar from neighbouring towns and cities as the health risks involved in the operation came under scrutiny.
Despite the pressure Castle Cement was put under, the plans for kiln 4 went ahead at the cost of 68 million GBP, and production started there in 2005. The company has since upped its production capacity and is responsible for over half of the UK's cement production.
I think that's probably enough information about the site, let me get on with my write up !
To anyone in the surrounding area (with a vague awareness of what is outside their house) Kiln 4 will stand as a something of a monument. It has become quite an iconic local building and with good reason - the thing is HUGE. The main height of the works being the 95 meter pre-heater tower, used to heat the materials required for cement production to the correct temperature to be introduced into the kiln itself.
We began to talk a little about the possibility of climbing this monster a few weeks before Christmas, and it has since become somewhat of a project of ours.
its difficult to get the scale of the kiln in perspective...
This report is the end result of countless visits to the site with TheFlu24 spanning the last few months, most of which involved keeping an eye on the activity around the kiln and putting together some rather careful planning based on what we had observed. Security are certainly prolific on the site, and usually quite busy keeping an eye on things, though there seemed to be no real pattern to their site checks which proved to be a sticky issue. With only a few seconds warning between hearing an approaching vehicle and said vehicle being directly in your line of sight. Finding an entrance also proved to be an issue.
After a number of quiet wonders around the perimeter of the site, and a couple of adventures up various other buildings on site, we still seemed to be none the wiser on how to get into the base of the kiln itself. That was until one of our most recent visits. The site seemed quieter than usual, and having assumed our now familiar look out spot our entrance all of a sudden became embarassingly clear. We set out to check this entrance and having successfully picked our way across site without being spotted we came to a steel staircase. Looking up confirmed that we'd cracked it, 46 flights of stairs extending above
our heads, presumably leading right to the roof. Inside, the scaffold clad inner workings heavily suggested that we'd managed to arrive in the middle of some repairs. Our urbex luck seemed to have proved useful once again !
First, some internal shots.
interesting graffiti..
And then onto the roof. The red light which bathes many of the shots comes from warning lights for planes.
Looking down onto the site from above, i assure you the buildings shown are a tiring enough climb on their own !
Over the front of the site towards liverpool.
And looking down on one of the busyest parts of the site
The exposure up here can catch you off guard in places
Having completed a second trip up the kiln just to grab all the pics we could, we came rather close to being rumbled. Upon leaving the kiln we got out of sight of an approaching vehicle by a matter of a second or two and scrambled to find cover behind some buildings close by. Over the next few minutes we crouched silently while an employee loaded some things into the vehicle no more than 6 feet away from TheFlu24's chosen cover. Once again we managed to avoid detection, and mere
minutes later we where out of the site relieved to have got it done.
Thanks for looking guys, hope you enjoyed the report. It has certainly been fun to put together ! One last shot, the obligatory
post successful climb self timer shot:
Leaf
caused uproar from neighbouring towns and cities as the health risks involved in the operation came under scrutiny.
Despite the pressure Castle Cement was put under, the plans for kiln 4 went ahead at the cost of 68 million GBP, and production started there in 2005. The company has since upped its production capacity and is responsible for over half of the UK's cement production.
I think that's probably enough information about the site, let me get on with my write up !
To anyone in the surrounding area (with a vague awareness of what is outside their house) Kiln 4 will stand as a something of a monument. It has become quite an iconic local building and with good reason - the thing is HUGE. The main height of the works being the 95 meter pre-heater tower, used to heat the materials required for cement production to the correct temperature to be introduced into the kiln itself.
We began to talk a little about the possibility of climbing this monster a few weeks before Christmas, and it has since become somewhat of a project of ours.
its difficult to get the scale of the kiln in perspective...
This report is the end result of countless visits to the site with TheFlu24 spanning the last few months, most of which involved keeping an eye on the activity around the kiln and putting together some rather careful planning based on what we had observed. Security are certainly prolific on the site, and usually quite busy keeping an eye on things, though there seemed to be no real pattern to their site checks which proved to be a sticky issue. With only a few seconds warning between hearing an approaching vehicle and said vehicle being directly in your line of sight. Finding an entrance also proved to be an issue.
After a number of quiet wonders around the perimeter of the site, and a couple of adventures up various other buildings on site, we still seemed to be none the wiser on how to get into the base of the kiln itself. That was until one of our most recent visits. The site seemed quieter than usual, and having assumed our now familiar look out spot our entrance all of a sudden became embarassingly clear. We set out to check this entrance and having successfully picked our way across site without being spotted we came to a steel staircase. Looking up confirmed that we'd cracked it, 46 flights of stairs extending above
our heads, presumably leading right to the roof. Inside, the scaffold clad inner workings heavily suggested that we'd managed to arrive in the middle of some repairs. Our urbex luck seemed to have proved useful once again !
First, some internal shots.
interesting graffiti..
And then onto the roof. The red light which bathes many of the shots comes from warning lights for planes.
Looking down onto the site from above, i assure you the buildings shown are a tiring enough climb on their own !
Over the front of the site towards liverpool.
And looking down on one of the busyest parts of the site
The exposure up here can catch you off guard in places
Having completed a second trip up the kiln just to grab all the pics we could, we came rather close to being rumbled. Upon leaving the kiln we got out of sight of an approaching vehicle by a matter of a second or two and scrambled to find cover behind some buildings close by. Over the next few minutes we crouched silently while an employee loaded some things into the vehicle no more than 6 feet away from TheFlu24's chosen cover. Once again we managed to avoid detection, and mere
minutes later we where out of the site relieved to have got it done.
Thanks for looking guys, hope you enjoyed the report. It has certainly been fun to put together ! One last shot, the obligatory
post successful climb self timer shot:
Leaf
