I won't post the history of this place up as it seems to have been done to death lately and if no-one knows what this place is then they must have had their head buried in the sand so I'll cut straight to the report.
As soon as I saw this place, I wanted to go there. It looked huge and vastly interesting. I visited with a non-member and we headed up to Fleet stopping for a much needed Maccy D's at the services before we went in. We parked up and set about looking for our entry point. We thought it would be easy because there were so many reports going up lately but after about 45 minutes of walking round finding all holes in the fence very well repaired, we found a nice little entry point which made our lives much easier.
As soon as we got inside the outer perimeter fencing we knew security patrolled so our hearts were racing. As we crept through the woods we heard the sound of a diesel engine and both hit the deck. It was secca doing his rounds. We watched him drive past and gave it a few minutes. Just as we started moving through the woods again, we heard the engine once more and hit the deck for a second time. This time we waited longer and all went quiet. We cautiously made our way out of the woods, our cover was broken so we had to move quick. All the buildings seems to have metal fencing around them, presumably to help deter people going inside. Thankfully we were small enough to roll underneath and then run for the cover of the pipes. We were in Pyestock. We sat for a minute and composed ourselves looking around absorbing everything we could see. I set my camera up and we were ready to move again.
Here's a few pictures I took from outside
We had a few ideas in our head of what we wanted to see, of course Cell 3 was on the list so we got our bearings from Google Earth (thanks 3G) and located the building. We looked around for an entry point, most doors were locked. We skirted the building, up and down steps and eventually found a door ajar. Just as I was about to push it open, I thought I heard noises from inside. I poked my ear to the crack of the door and gave it a gentle push, it was stiff and noisy. I listened and could hear something inside. There was pigeon shit everywhere so decided it must have been the wildlife making the noise. Surely we hadn't come this far to be busted so early. I cranked the door open making a horrific noise, we stepped inside and held our breath. I could hear faint noises, quiet footsteps and the sound of someone quietly shhhh'ing another. Fuck!! We're not alone. I crouched and looked under a huge pipe and saw feet heading in our direction, too late to run now!
Then a head poked round the corner and relief filled the air from both parties. We'd bumped into another group, if my member serves me correctly, it was Greenwing Hero, Chrisr86 and someone else (sorry dude I forgot). It was great to see some other explorers and good to meet you guys. We tagged along and went for a look around.
Cell 3 is severely flooded under the walkway, I reckon there's at least 5 or 6 feet of water so you really don't want to fall in.
Unfortunately the side door to the Red Dwarf blast door tunnel (don't know the proper name for it) in Cell 3 had been firmly closed, it looked like some sort of a wheel was used to turn the gears to lock it which has since been removed. The only option to get inside was through the top. There was a dodgy piece of rope and a piece of chain dangling from the unstable roof down inside. We contemplated going down for about half an hour and no-one could pluck up enough courage so we decided to move on. Gutted!
Here's a picture of the overhead crane in Cell 3 most probably used to lift the engines in and out for testing.
We moved on to the next building which I believe was Cell 4 (please correct me if I'm wrong) This place was epic and was used on the film set for the film Sahara (which I haven't seen). Words can't describe how huge this place it, it's an engineering wonder, astonishing.
We spent a long time in here, especially light painting inside the tubes with long exposures. I could have done with a bigger torch, my P7 seemed futile against the vast expanse of the place.
We then had a look round a few office type rooms. There were boxes and boxes of drawings and logs for various pieces of equipment.
At this point we headed back outside and parted company with the other group. We decided to have a quick look in the air house before heading back out.
The air house is quite impressive with an equally impressive control room
We climbed right up the overhead crane gantry which was fine until we had to walk across 2 planks of wood at the highest point which we knew had been sitting up there rotting for years. It was a long long way down and we felt uneasy walking along it. I stopped for a couple of quick pictures before we headed back down.
It was starting to get late and darkness was imminent so we left the building and headed back out just as we heard secca doing his rounds again... good timing!
This has certainly whet my appetite to go back, there's so much to see, you could spend an entire day in one building taking photographs.
Goodbye for now Pyestock, I'll be back!
As soon as I saw this place, I wanted to go there. It looked huge and vastly interesting. I visited with a non-member and we headed up to Fleet stopping for a much needed Maccy D's at the services before we went in. We parked up and set about looking for our entry point. We thought it would be easy because there were so many reports going up lately but after about 45 minutes of walking round finding all holes in the fence very well repaired, we found a nice little entry point which made our lives much easier.
As soon as we got inside the outer perimeter fencing we knew security patrolled so our hearts were racing. As we crept through the woods we heard the sound of a diesel engine and both hit the deck. It was secca doing his rounds. We watched him drive past and gave it a few minutes. Just as we started moving through the woods again, we heard the engine once more and hit the deck for a second time. This time we waited longer and all went quiet. We cautiously made our way out of the woods, our cover was broken so we had to move quick. All the buildings seems to have metal fencing around them, presumably to help deter people going inside. Thankfully we were small enough to roll underneath and then run for the cover of the pipes. We were in Pyestock. We sat for a minute and composed ourselves looking around absorbing everything we could see. I set my camera up and we were ready to move again.
Here's a few pictures I took from outside
We had a few ideas in our head of what we wanted to see, of course Cell 3 was on the list so we got our bearings from Google Earth (thanks 3G) and located the building. We looked around for an entry point, most doors were locked. We skirted the building, up and down steps and eventually found a door ajar. Just as I was about to push it open, I thought I heard noises from inside. I poked my ear to the crack of the door and gave it a gentle push, it was stiff and noisy. I listened and could hear something inside. There was pigeon shit everywhere so decided it must have been the wildlife making the noise. Surely we hadn't come this far to be busted so early. I cranked the door open making a horrific noise, we stepped inside and held our breath. I could hear faint noises, quiet footsteps and the sound of someone quietly shhhh'ing another. Fuck!! We're not alone. I crouched and looked under a huge pipe and saw feet heading in our direction, too late to run now!
Then a head poked round the corner and relief filled the air from both parties. We'd bumped into another group, if my member serves me correctly, it was Greenwing Hero, Chrisr86 and someone else (sorry dude I forgot). It was great to see some other explorers and good to meet you guys. We tagged along and went for a look around.
Cell 3 is severely flooded under the walkway, I reckon there's at least 5 or 6 feet of water so you really don't want to fall in.
Unfortunately the side door to the Red Dwarf blast door tunnel (don't know the proper name for it) in Cell 3 had been firmly closed, it looked like some sort of a wheel was used to turn the gears to lock it which has since been removed. The only option to get inside was through the top. There was a dodgy piece of rope and a piece of chain dangling from the unstable roof down inside. We contemplated going down for about half an hour and no-one could pluck up enough courage so we decided to move on. Gutted!
Here's a picture of the overhead crane in Cell 3 most probably used to lift the engines in and out for testing.
We moved on to the next building which I believe was Cell 4 (please correct me if I'm wrong) This place was epic and was used on the film set for the film Sahara (which I haven't seen). Words can't describe how huge this place it, it's an engineering wonder, astonishing.
We spent a long time in here, especially light painting inside the tubes with long exposures. I could have done with a bigger torch, my P7 seemed futile against the vast expanse of the place.
We then had a look round a few office type rooms. There were boxes and boxes of drawings and logs for various pieces of equipment.
At this point we headed back outside and parted company with the other group. We decided to have a quick look in the air house before heading back out.
The air house is quite impressive with an equally impressive control room
We climbed right up the overhead crane gantry which was fine until we had to walk across 2 planks of wood at the highest point which we knew had been sitting up there rotting for years. It was a long long way down and we felt uneasy walking along it. I stopped for a couple of quick pictures before we headed back down.
It was starting to get late and darkness was imminent so we left the building and headed back out just as we heard secca doing his rounds again... good timing!
This has certainly whet my appetite to go back, there's so much to see, you could spend an entire day in one building taking photographs.
Goodbye for now Pyestock, I'll be back!
