Hi Guys
My first report here and my first proper explore, after a few months of lurking and learning, so please be gentle?!
A bit about me and my experience that day. I'm 34 now, but remember exploring a lot in my early teens. Very close to where I was living back then were a number of industrial estates where me and my friends used to spend incredible amounts of time, just looking around buildings and yards and sheds. Same went for the stuff they were just building too, seeing it in various states of construction. So, I kindof knew what it would feel like to get into these sorts of places again. The difference now is that I'm older, supposedly wiser, and probably a lot more cautious or careful. Read: boring.
Anyway, we planned this visit about a week before, and I'd done a bit of recce, some research thru the reports on here and on various mapping websites, so I got my access planned and understood a bit about how the site was laid out. What I didn't sort out properly was clothing or footwear, how I was carrying my camera safely, bringing a tripod etc. All newbie mistakes that made me feel very amateur. I also felt really clumsy walking around the place. It all comes with experience huh?
As for my phots, well, I understand photography and the use of SLRs, but borrowed a DSLR and didn't really have a grasp of its functions very well, so they're not great. The day was very grey too so they're a bit gloomy looking, but then that lends itself to the feel of this site.
Anyway, enough blurb. On with the report.
Visited with another newbie lurker on here, Courageous. This site has seen a bit of activity of late, and a fair few reports on here, so there's little point me posting history or links to info. It’s probably quite a safe place to start, access was easy and security non-existent (on a Sunday, with the in-use offices at the front of the site not in use). We saw a lots of things that have been well reported on here, but managed to get into at least one building that I think hasn't been entered before. There were some other guys from Swindon there that day who used an ingenious method to open up the tall building where the suicide allegedly took place. They said there was nothing to be seen in there, so we didn't bother scrambling under the door they opened, through the pigeon poo lake.
Every building has a number on it, like so
I think there are 65+ individual buildings on the site.
I guess we should have entered here, had our entry been conventional
And if we had been found, possibly been told to exit via this door?
In the building we think we may have opened up, we found block-built offices on the ground floor with some relics within
and above these single storey offices, an older industrial use for the same building, including huge hoppers and a conveyor system in the roof
There are still live power transformers on the site, and some local power distribution also seems to be live. Outside this cabinet, which 'hummed' like it was live
we found this cable. Definitely not live, but substantial nonetheless
The rest are just a few pics that show things that haven't been posted before on here
All in all, an excellent start for me, and its definitely got me thinking about my next move. I've noted plenty of sites around Cheltenham, and an absolute beauty in Gloucester, so more reports soon hopefully. Cheers for reading, and hit me with the feedback if you like.
Stu
My first report here and my first proper explore, after a few months of lurking and learning, so please be gentle?!
A bit about me and my experience that day. I'm 34 now, but remember exploring a lot in my early teens. Very close to where I was living back then were a number of industrial estates where me and my friends used to spend incredible amounts of time, just looking around buildings and yards and sheds. Same went for the stuff they were just building too, seeing it in various states of construction. So, I kindof knew what it would feel like to get into these sorts of places again. The difference now is that I'm older, supposedly wiser, and probably a lot more cautious or careful. Read: boring.
Anyway, we planned this visit about a week before, and I'd done a bit of recce, some research thru the reports on here and on various mapping websites, so I got my access planned and understood a bit about how the site was laid out. What I didn't sort out properly was clothing or footwear, how I was carrying my camera safely, bringing a tripod etc. All newbie mistakes that made me feel very amateur. I also felt really clumsy walking around the place. It all comes with experience huh?
As for my phots, well, I understand photography and the use of SLRs, but borrowed a DSLR and didn't really have a grasp of its functions very well, so they're not great. The day was very grey too so they're a bit gloomy looking, but then that lends itself to the feel of this site.
Anyway, enough blurb. On with the report.
Visited with another newbie lurker on here, Courageous. This site has seen a bit of activity of late, and a fair few reports on here, so there's little point me posting history or links to info. It’s probably quite a safe place to start, access was easy and security non-existent (on a Sunday, with the in-use offices at the front of the site not in use). We saw a lots of things that have been well reported on here, but managed to get into at least one building that I think hasn't been entered before. There were some other guys from Swindon there that day who used an ingenious method to open up the tall building where the suicide allegedly took place. They said there was nothing to be seen in there, so we didn't bother scrambling under the door they opened, through the pigeon poo lake.
Every building has a number on it, like so
I think there are 65+ individual buildings on the site.
I guess we should have entered here, had our entry been conventional
And if we had been found, possibly been told to exit via this door?
In the building we think we may have opened up, we found block-built offices on the ground floor with some relics within
and above these single storey offices, an older industrial use for the same building, including huge hoppers and a conveyor system in the roof
There are still live power transformers on the site, and some local power distribution also seems to be live. Outside this cabinet, which 'hummed' like it was live
we found this cable. Definitely not live, but substantial nonetheless
The rest are just a few pics that show things that haven't been posted before on here
All in all, an excellent start for me, and its definitely got me thinking about my next move. I've noted plenty of sites around Cheltenham, and an absolute beauty in Gloucester, so more reports soon hopefully. Cheers for reading, and hit me with the feedback if you like.
Stu
