Whato!
Hope you're all enjoying the annual 28days meet-up bash! Would loved to have come but not able to this year.
Just when you think an area couldn't get more boring.....it becomes slightly more interesting. Rural Warwickshire and Oxfordshire are by contrast to other countryside areas a heavily sanitised set of counties with abandoned sites quickly redeveloped or well guarded, and there's not much variation. However, there are random pockets of moderate resistance. In this mild case, after spending time in this area for many years on and off without finding much interesting save for good pubs and neat fields, a random walk yielded an abandoned former factory site. This has seemingly been under my nose for the best part of a decade, as I've driven past it numerous times. The site is a gentle mooch, nothing special and pretty trashed but has it charms during golden hour and features some interesting structures.
Hornton stone is native to the Banbury area. High in iron content it is dark to reddish brown and from the Marlstone rock formations in North Oxfordshire. If you've driven through this area you'll have seen plenty of buildings built from and clad in in this warm stone, it's quite lovely. Therefore there's been local industries dedicated to this material.
A company was formed north of Banbury to quarry this stone for various purposes - building materials and monument blocks, etc. The quarry opposite still remains and is in a semi state of disuse, with of course swanky housing being proposed. Nearby is the former factory and HQ which has seemingly remained dormant since 2006 (according to calendars and signage on site). An advert for the buildings and rental of the site date from 2010 (£40,000 per year was asked for) and the level of dereliction suggests this place has been abandoned, trashed and forgotten about in the intervening years probably in cycles.
The site when recently vacated in the late 2000s according to a sales leaflet:
I have a had a cursory look into this site, browsing some publicly available company records and estate-agent publications, but there isn't much on the history of the place or any notable history. Like many industrial sites there was essentially naff-all there until industry beckoned and a company was formed on the land.
In this case, the HQ was a quarry in the 19th century, with a short tramway. The trusty National Library of Scotland OS maps collection show us some changes over the decades from the late 19th century (left), to the mid century (middle) and today (right). The HQ site is top left
The explore:
The 2.5 acre site is maintained in that the scrub appears to be cut back and trimmed, presumably for when potential purchases are shown around, but aside from that everything is left as-is, with discarded gubbins everywhere and the buildings aren't maintained. It's pretty clear the buildings will all be levelled when sold. Nothing is locally listed.
It's surprising that this site hasn't been sold many years prior, given it's location. However a similar situation occurred with a former factory site near Southam a decade ago, and that's now being built on. So one day - it'll just happen and one day it'll be someone's street. It's a quiet explore, a nice stroll around really. Definitely one for the summer and autumn when the foliage really pop and add colourful lushness to what is a rather beige brownfield site. Shame it's been quite thoroughly trashed by thieves and idiots, as is the style at this time. Though, there's not much graff, surprisingly.
Highlights being the canteen room with it's delightfully peeling paint and vintage feel, lots of ivy growth over various outhouses and more sofas then you'd find at a DFS.
My UrbexTripAdvisor rating is ⭐⭐ out of five. Worth a ganders if you're in the area and want a relaxing hour snapping some interesting textures. Lovely pub up the road for refreshment.
Additional:
When my beloved Citroen Picasso conked out a couple of years ago I used the scrap-money to buy a funky 1990s-hip-hop-music-video-or-skateboarding-video style lens which seemed perfect for the confined interiors of Talgarth (it didn't disappoint), so here's
that lens deployed here:
Thanks for reading, and try to remain calm.
Hope you're all enjoying the annual 28days meet-up bash! Would loved to have come but not able to this year.
Just when you think an area couldn't get more boring.....it becomes slightly more interesting. Rural Warwickshire and Oxfordshire are by contrast to other countryside areas a heavily sanitised set of counties with abandoned sites quickly redeveloped or well guarded, and there's not much variation. However, there are random pockets of moderate resistance. In this mild case, after spending time in this area for many years on and off without finding much interesting save for good pubs and neat fields, a random walk yielded an abandoned former factory site. This has seemingly been under my nose for the best part of a decade, as I've driven past it numerous times. The site is a gentle mooch, nothing special and pretty trashed but has it charms during golden hour and features some interesting structures.
Hornton stone is native to the Banbury area. High in iron content it is dark to reddish brown and from the Marlstone rock formations in North Oxfordshire. If you've driven through this area you'll have seen plenty of buildings built from and clad in in this warm stone, it's quite lovely. Therefore there's been local industries dedicated to this material.
A company was formed north of Banbury to quarry this stone for various purposes - building materials and monument blocks, etc. The quarry opposite still remains and is in a semi state of disuse, with of course swanky housing being proposed. Nearby is the former factory and HQ which has seemingly remained dormant since 2006 (according to calendars and signage on site). An advert for the buildings and rental of the site date from 2010 (£40,000 per year was asked for) and the level of dereliction suggests this place has been abandoned, trashed and forgotten about in the intervening years probably in cycles.
The site when recently vacated in the late 2000s according to a sales leaflet:
I have a had a cursory look into this site, browsing some publicly available company records and estate-agent publications, but there isn't much on the history of the place or any notable history. Like many industrial sites there was essentially naff-all there until industry beckoned and a company was formed on the land.
In this case, the HQ was a quarry in the 19th century, with a short tramway. The trusty National Library of Scotland OS maps collection show us some changes over the decades from the late 19th century (left), to the mid century (middle) and today (right). The HQ site is top left
The explore:
The 2.5 acre site is maintained in that the scrub appears to be cut back and trimmed, presumably for when potential purchases are shown around, but aside from that everything is left as-is, with discarded gubbins everywhere and the buildings aren't maintained. It's pretty clear the buildings will all be levelled when sold. Nothing is locally listed.
It's surprising that this site hasn't been sold many years prior, given it's location. However a similar situation occurred with a former factory site near Southam a decade ago, and that's now being built on. So one day - it'll just happen and one day it'll be someone's street. It's a quiet explore, a nice stroll around really. Definitely one for the summer and autumn when the foliage really pop and add colourful lushness to what is a rather beige brownfield site. Shame it's been quite thoroughly trashed by thieves and idiots, as is the style at this time. Though, there's not much graff, surprisingly.
Highlights being the canteen room with it's delightfully peeling paint and vintage feel, lots of ivy growth over various outhouses and more sofas then you'd find at a DFS.
My UrbexTripAdvisor rating is ⭐⭐ out of five. Worth a ganders if you're in the area and want a relaxing hour snapping some interesting textures. Lovely pub up the road for refreshment.
Additional:
When my beloved Citroen Picasso conked out a couple of years ago I used the scrap-money to buy a funky 1990s-hip-hop-music-video-or-skateboarding-video style lens which seemed perfect for the confined interiors of Talgarth (it didn't disappoint), so here's
that lens deployed here:
Thanks for reading, and try to remain calm.
