The best laid plans...
My day started at 2:15 am and I probably got up last. Some of the others hadn’t even been to bed. We (me, @albino-jay , @monk and another non-member) went in search of epic and ended up, after a turn of just bad luck, staring down a dog’s muzzle for a couple of hours until the police turned up. The police were sound, did their thing, used common sense and let us on our way, but with that most of the day had gone. The security guard had been determined to get us arrested, to the extent he even tried to fit us up. So, with few options left we made our way back up t’north thinking of locations that were reet good to do.
Luckily for us, Clebby had recently found this gem and Speed had filed his report. It would involve a detour, but the clock tower looked worth it, and we quickly put together a contingency plan over a Maccies to salvage the day.
Having got into a pickle in the morning, it seemed almost poetic to visit the Branston depot in the afternoon.
History
This place is steeped in history, but I am going to give a potted version. There is an erudite account in Speed’s original report, here.
During World War One, the government concocted a jolly spiffing plan to design and build a machine gun factory, so they allocated 150 acres of fields north of Burton Road in Branston. Thomas Lowe and Sons started building it in 1917, but the war was over in November 1918 before the project was complete. Only one of the four planned warehouses were built. The buildings had been kitted out in America machinery to build machine guns, which were used instead to recondition them.
The distinctive brick along the front of the building, was actually made by prisoners of war. Who were housed in local breweries. If I am ever a prisoner of War, I hope also to be housed in a brewery. I will happily work for pints.
This report concerns the three-storey office block that was built at the entrance of the site, which is grade two listed along with the canteen building and pump house.
Crosse and Blackwell ended up buying the building in 1920, pledging to make the largest and best food preserving plant in the British Empire. Everyone has to have a dream. And theirs was pickling. But that dream quickly turned sour and in 1925 they moved operations back to London, resulting in mass boycotts of their products for years to come.
The site was then occupied for a short time by the Branston Artificial Silk Company (because silk worms have rights) and that saw a 360-foot-tall, 45 feet in diameter chimney added to the site to syphon off all the unpleasant fumes from production. Making pretend silk involved using Carbon Disulphoide. It was a bit of a local wonder, being the second biggest chimney in the country at the time. However, it was knocked down in 1937 as a hazard to aircraft and a possible landmark to attract unwanted attention from the Luftwaffe during ze second vurld vor!
In 1930, the Artificial Silk Company ceased production and the administrators arranged short term leases until luck would have it, there was another World War! The War Office took over the site once again producing clothing and small equipment for the army. The site was developed around this time, with the three remaining large warehouses being constructed.
Since then the buildings have been used by various government departments, including the Ordnance Depot, the War Office, the Home Office, Auxiliary Fire Service, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Royal Navy, Air Force and HM Customs and Excise, amongst others.
During the 1990’s much of the land was developed into housing, with the remaining buildings being split between the Home Office and agencies for letting. B and Q are on the site leasing the four big warehouses for circa £13 million over five years. And the Ministry of Justice are there too.
There are plans to develop the site into housing, which have not come to much so far, but as with things, that may just be a matter of time.
The Explore
We were happy to find a relaxed explore after the mornings shenanigans. The light was beginning to fade when we rocked up, but a quick recce and we were in and heading upstairs to the clock tower, the main attraction.
The main entrance. It all looked pretty decent, just a bit run down.
The place was filled, as you might expect, with lots of offices. Most of these are stripped right back now, but the original fireplaces and radiators (or were the coal fired furnaces and cooling systems for turbines?) are still there. Some really nice spaces. This is just a jumble of rooms from the three levels as I can't remember what order they came in.
The pigeon in this photo was quite happy to have his picture taken, looking all moody out the window, like an Umbex Pigeon.
I saw the live pigeon and he wasn't bothered about me. The I noticed his dead mate and liked the juxtaposition. I would have liked a lower aspect, but pigeons are fickle when it comes to having their photo taken. One minute their fine. They next they're repeatedly headbutting the window.
This room had some machinery of some sort. I know this is not a turbine.
Nope, not a turbine from this angle either!
There was a pretty corridor or two...
And a pretty staircase...
If you look from the top of the staircase down, you can see there are no turbines anywhere, just dead pigeons and pigeon shit.
In fact the place was teeming with pigeons; some dead, some alive, some that had just hatched. One of the most gruesome things in the building was a nest of four or five chicks alive and waiting to be fed with their dead mother in the nest beside them. Not sure what had happened there, but it does look like there is a pigeon predator about.
This is more or less where our explore began, but it was the best bit, so I have saved it for last. Not that there will be any surprises with this being the third report on the place...
Through this door where you're not permitted to go. And cannot actually go, because it is blocked, so you have to go another way...
Are stairs covered in pigeon shit that lead to a loft...
And that's where the clock tower with four faces lives...
And that was that. It was a fairly quick explore in fading light, but a nice building to wander around, particularly because of its history. It may not have been what we set out for and this is not the report I hoped to write. However, the clock tower helped save the day!
Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoy the report. And with a bit of luck, the one I hope to write will follow in due course...
Cheers,
EOA
My day started at 2:15 am and I probably got up last. Some of the others hadn’t even been to bed. We (me, @albino-jay , @monk and another non-member) went in search of epic and ended up, after a turn of just bad luck, staring down a dog’s muzzle for a couple of hours until the police turned up. The police were sound, did their thing, used common sense and let us on our way, but with that most of the day had gone. The security guard had been determined to get us arrested, to the extent he even tried to fit us up. So, with few options left we made our way back up t’north thinking of locations that were reet good to do.
Luckily for us, Clebby had recently found this gem and Speed had filed his report. It would involve a detour, but the clock tower looked worth it, and we quickly put together a contingency plan over a Maccies to salvage the day.
Having got into a pickle in the morning, it seemed almost poetic to visit the Branston depot in the afternoon.
History
This place is steeped in history, but I am going to give a potted version. There is an erudite account in Speed’s original report, here.
During World War One, the government concocted a jolly spiffing plan to design and build a machine gun factory, so they allocated 150 acres of fields north of Burton Road in Branston. Thomas Lowe and Sons started building it in 1917, but the war was over in November 1918 before the project was complete. Only one of the four planned warehouses were built. The buildings had been kitted out in America machinery to build machine guns, which were used instead to recondition them.
The distinctive brick along the front of the building, was actually made by prisoners of war. Who were housed in local breweries. If I am ever a prisoner of War, I hope also to be housed in a brewery. I will happily work for pints.
This report concerns the three-storey office block that was built at the entrance of the site, which is grade two listed along with the canteen building and pump house.
Crosse and Blackwell ended up buying the building in 1920, pledging to make the largest and best food preserving plant in the British Empire. Everyone has to have a dream. And theirs was pickling. But that dream quickly turned sour and in 1925 they moved operations back to London, resulting in mass boycotts of their products for years to come.
The site was then occupied for a short time by the Branston Artificial Silk Company (because silk worms have rights) and that saw a 360-foot-tall, 45 feet in diameter chimney added to the site to syphon off all the unpleasant fumes from production. Making pretend silk involved using Carbon Disulphoide. It was a bit of a local wonder, being the second biggest chimney in the country at the time. However, it was knocked down in 1937 as a hazard to aircraft and a possible landmark to attract unwanted attention from the Luftwaffe during ze second vurld vor!
In 1930, the Artificial Silk Company ceased production and the administrators arranged short term leases until luck would have it, there was another World War! The War Office took over the site once again producing clothing and small equipment for the army. The site was developed around this time, with the three remaining large warehouses being constructed.
Since then the buildings have been used by various government departments, including the Ordnance Depot, the War Office, the Home Office, Auxiliary Fire Service, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Royal Navy, Air Force and HM Customs and Excise, amongst others.
During the 1990’s much of the land was developed into housing, with the remaining buildings being split between the Home Office and agencies for letting. B and Q are on the site leasing the four big warehouses for circa £13 million over five years. And the Ministry of Justice are there too.
There are plans to develop the site into housing, which have not come to much so far, but as with things, that may just be a matter of time.
The Explore
We were happy to find a relaxed explore after the mornings shenanigans. The light was beginning to fade when we rocked up, but a quick recce and we were in and heading upstairs to the clock tower, the main attraction.
The main entrance. It all looked pretty decent, just a bit run down.
The place was filled, as you might expect, with lots of offices. Most of these are stripped right back now, but the original fireplaces and radiators (or were the coal fired furnaces and cooling systems for turbines?) are still there. Some really nice spaces. This is just a jumble of rooms from the three levels as I can't remember what order they came in.
The pigeon in this photo was quite happy to have his picture taken, looking all moody out the window, like an Umbex Pigeon.
I saw the live pigeon and he wasn't bothered about me. The I noticed his dead mate and liked the juxtaposition. I would have liked a lower aspect, but pigeons are fickle when it comes to having their photo taken. One minute their fine. They next they're repeatedly headbutting the window.
This room had some machinery of some sort. I know this is not a turbine.
Nope, not a turbine from this angle either!
There was a pretty corridor or two...
And a pretty staircase...
If you look from the top of the staircase down, you can see there are no turbines anywhere, just dead pigeons and pigeon shit.
In fact the place was teeming with pigeons; some dead, some alive, some that had just hatched. One of the most gruesome things in the building was a nest of four or five chicks alive and waiting to be fed with their dead mother in the nest beside them. Not sure what had happened there, but it does look like there is a pigeon predator about.
This is more or less where our explore began, but it was the best bit, so I have saved it for last. Not that there will be any surprises with this being the third report on the place...
Through this door where you're not permitted to go. And cannot actually go, because it is blocked, so you have to go another way...
Are stairs covered in pigeon shit that lead to a loft...
And that's where the clock tower with four faces lives...
And that was that. It was a fairly quick explore in fading light, but a nice building to wander around, particularly because of its history. It may not have been what we set out for and this is not the report I hoped to write. However, the clock tower helped save the day!
Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoy the report. And with a bit of luck, the one I hope to write will follow in due course...
Cheers,
EOA
