Visited with Rigsby.

Well done Dweeb the pottry king for spotting this little treasure. It's in a pretty run down neighbourhood but hidden behind a couple of walls, lies a mint little building full of china, porn and lingerie. There's also a little launderette on site which might explain the underwear everywhere rather than the dubious "pervert sex pit" theories previously expressed.

It's a lovely little place with all sorts of scary china animals. Smells a bit and we got covered in crap anti-climb paint. Paint fail!

Visited with Speed.

Well better late than never but let's hope the wait was worth it! Waterford was a last minute decision that paid off in full. Huge mills, epic industry and a boiling hot day in Spring We found these chocolat biscuits called "Elite" which was pretty funny so we made a video about it (I'll edit it soon, I swear).

We were in one of the top buildings and suddenly this rescue helicopter came zooming past the window really close to us. Snap snap photos! Apart from that, I don't have a lot more to say other than..wow!

Visited with Rigsby.

I think this was our third pottery of the day in a blitz to try and fit in as many as we could before driving down the Birmingham. We'd slept in the car in a Lidl's car park and set the alarm for 5am (whoops overselpt).

Tams Pottery is great, they must have made mugs for everyone because there were some really random ones ranging from Plyaboy to Pokemon. The place is realy colourful and we even found a working radio for a very musical explore.

Here's some history:

In 1864 John Tams and William Lowe were two pottery companies who came from a partnership "Tams & Lowe" which split up in 1874.

John Tams then formed the company on his own, in 1903 became John Tams & Son and in 1912 John Tams Ltd.

Tams Group Limited was formed in April 2000. It was a management buy in of part of the former John Tams Group PLC, which went into receivership in February 2000.

Tams Group Limited bought the rights to Tams, Royal Grafton and Grafton Living. Marketing these brands and still manufacturing in Longton, Stoke on Trent - in 2002 was the biggest ceramic employer in Longton and one of the biggest mugs manufacturer in Europe.

The company operated from the Crown Works on The Strand in Longton and also had the Blythe, Sutherland and Atlas works in Longton - and a warehouse at the former Monarch flatware site in Fenton. In 2006 the group went into receivership and finally closed.

Visited with Rigsby.

I love the smell of heavy industry in the morning....and the morning it was...6am to be precise. We hadn't gone to bed yet because of driving straight up from London the night before. I'm still not convinced this was not the cause of an on-going Rookinella lung problem because the dust and shit that we must have breathed in whilst exploring can't have been good. You know when your mouth feels gritty and earthen?

Anyway, it was an amazing place and so big. It reminded me of Beringen because of the tracks on the ground and the colours of the machines. It's due to be demolished any day now so I'd suggest getting your skates on if you want to see it. Cheers to Shadow for the info!

Visited with Rigsby and Loops.

I only originally suggested this place as a site to kill some time before we went and did some high stuff but it ended up taking forever because security were very present in the buildings

Me and Speed tried this last October because we remember quite a few people had been and it would be a nice hospital to round the day off with. However a lot of the old reports fail to say that this place was explored with the permission of the security guard so surprise surprise, when we asked, he was like "no, fuck off!" ha ha.

Well about 8 months later, we threw caution to the wind and the cameras and decided to give it a crack without permission holding ours hands. There were voices inside the building the whole time we were there but that made creeping around all the more fun. There's loads of cameras on the outside too but I'm not sure if they work.

It was a good afternoon/evening spent mooching around but it's nothing special which is a shame because it looks pretty good from the outside.

Visited with Rigsby and Loops.

I only originally suggested this place as a site to kill some time before we went and did some high stuff but it ended up taking forever because security were very present in the buildings

Me and Speed tried this last October because we remember quite a few people had been and it would be a nice hospital to round the day off with. However a lot of the old reports fail to say that this place was explored with the permission of the security guard so surprise surprise, when we asked, he was like "no, fuck off!" ha ha.

Well about 8 months later, we threw caution to the wind and the cameras and decided to give it a crack without permission holding ours hands. There were voices inside the building the whole time we were there but that made creeping around all the more fun. There's loads of cameras on the outside too but I'm not sure if they work.

It was a good afternoon/evening spent mooching around but it's nothing special which is a shame because it looks pretty good from the outside.

Here's some history:

In 1870, a small 26-bed hospital was opened here & known as North-Eastern Hospital and Dispensary.In 1893, a new building fund began, this allowed the Hackney Road site to be expanded and new ward accommodation to be added. 1942, amalgamated with the Princess Elizabeth of York Hospital for Children, Shadwell to become The Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children.In 1948, the hospital became part of the newly created NHS. 1996, the hospital became part of The Royal Hospitals Trust, now Barts and The London NHS Trust. Michael Jackson made a visit in 1992.
In 1998, the services of the hospital were relocated to The Royal London Hospital, where they retain their historical identity through their current name, The Queen Elizabeth Children's Service a title granted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.
The hospital had one of the country's most important pathological laboratories for the investigation of child diseases.

Visited with Turkey and Speed.

We went here as part of our two day Ipswichy trip back in the middle of May. I always thought this place was a bit like Royal Arthur until we got there and there was an enormously mint swimming pool and other cool stuff There's a museum on site as well which I think has 24hr security but other than that, we didn't see anyone. It was a most enjoyable trip!

Here's a bit of information I found on the interweb:

Shotley Point was destined to have strong connections with the Navy. Originally an Anglo Saxon settlement, Shotley Gate saw its first naval battle in AD885, when Alfred, King of Wessex fought off Guthrum the Dane’s invading army. It was at Shotley Point, that the wooden ship HMS Ganges, was berthed from 1899, and used as a cadet training ship for the Royal Navy. When the Ganges vessel was finally retired (and towed away to Chatham), the training facility, still named HMS Ganges, moved ashore (in 1905). The facility remained there until its closure in June 1976, when its training function moved to HMS Raleigh, Torpoint, Cornwall. More than 150,000 Navy recruits passed through the gates of HMS Ganges. It was later opened as a police training centre, but this too came to an end in the 1990s. The mast of the HMS Ganges still stands on the now-derelict site, which is proposed to be developed in the near future.

At high tea on the seventeeth of this fair month, three intrepids set sail on a bonny boat named "The Orange Pearl" for a voyage fraught with danger of every kind. Wild water beasties (woodlice), busking frenchmen, hidden ducks and a bunch of scallies moored up outside the shelter for waifs and strays.

The crew was made up of Captain Marmite who they say smells and tastes of twiglets and arrrr this is how he got his name. He was a man of many morals although fell by the wayside when it came to selling drawings of one particular famous pirate known as First Maid Brittania Spearsbeard. He was a bit of a loose canon, so he was, but full of spirit and a grand leader. Owner of The Orange Pearl and in charge of Roger the Cabin Boy who was a master at controlling the high seas with green river snakes to guide the ladyship. Lastly was First Mate Nelly Rookinellaaarrrrrrr who was a brave young thing who couldn't swim but they brought her along to carry the sweets. Folklore says that having a woman aboard was bad luck.....even a miniature one..arrrrr!

Roger the Cabin Boy was the first to test the waters paddling with a tupperware lid (or the 1800s equivalent). Captain Marmite fed the green river snakes out to Roger to test the length of battle-approximately two hours/knots/logs. Roger gave a tug on the rope and indicated that treasure lay beyond the arched caverns.


The three tired pirates sailed off under the bridge and into the sunset to meet crowds of rowdy supporters welcoming them home on their victorius voyage.

Arrrrghhh mission accomplished!

Visited with Looptheloop, Silogennnnfuckyeah and Witek.

This one was very easy to find thanks to Shadow who sent me the pirate map with the X on it It may also have been easier because it wasn't just some insignificant hole in the ground like some were (fan bay, I'm talking about you).

No rockets inside, not even those E number lollies sadly but Witek did find a little posse of pigeons who had no fear. My guess is that they've been hanging around with the arrogant seagulls you find in all coastal areas who don't even give a shit if you nearly run them over. It's cool, I like this place...especially the risk of certain death just as you get to the bottom. I was saying it's like when you're on top of a building and there's that 0.0001 percent of you that just wants to leap out to see what happens. Weeee!

Visited with Siologen, Loops and Witek (name on birth certificate)

Possibly one of the only sites yesterday that we found with any ease! It was Siologen's birthday so we thought a picnic and some tunnels would make a nice day of it. We started off looking for the Fan Bay thingy (could I remember where it was?....could I fuck...) We found lots of pea fields though and Witek ate lots of them We soaked up some sunshine on some random concrete structure and let off lots of party poppers and medals because everyone's a winner baby..that's the truth.

More pea fields later and we pulled up into the National Trust car park and swerved past the booth without paying (hardcore). Whilst waiting for Silo to go and move the car, me, Loops and Witek sunbathed and watched clouds in the shapes of noses and arrows.

Visited with Siologen.

We went here a couple of weeks ago before I left for Ireland and after we'd had an epic day of fail in regards to what we were looking for (although this paid off in the end because we found it eventually). The day started off so promising weather wise but whilst we were ambling along the coast, the heavens opened and splatted down a load of raindrops the size of golf balls. We got soaked and ended up squelching around Dover talking about the usual filth and asking locals for information.

So....as a last resort, we checked out the oil mills which were so murky that it made all the photos come out very misty because of the condensation. There was some interesting graffiti It was still a good recceing day and a great opportunity to (kind of) get to know the area...even though we still got lost a couple of weeks later.

In conclusion....Dover is full of black holes and conspiracy horses.

Visited with Aliarrrse.

I'll warn you now...this place is wank. However we checked a few leads in the area and had exhausted the little shop of its icecreams so we thought we better at least go and do some exploring rather than malingering on street corners. Access was comedy and although it's boarded to within an inch of its little life, it looks like it's been done over by a whole range of pikeys, animals...you name it.

The place is trashed but amongst all the debris and smashed lights, lies a rather nice main hall not too dis-similar to the ones we are all used to in the UK asylums. It was kind of its saving grace after we'd fannied around outside making silly videos and upsetting the locals.

Visited with Speed + two other Irish explorers who we bumped into.

As Speed said in his other report, we only had Waterford on the list as a stand by just in case we had time before catching the ferry back. As it turned out, these two sites turned out to be a big highlight of the trip. Access was pretty straightforward and nobody seemed to care or see what we were up to. I'd recommend the "I dropped my sunglasses the other side of the fence, can I go and get them?" tactic.

Visited with Speed.

The college is set back from the road running through the village of Balleyvourney but it can be seen very clearly as you drive past. This was one of the sites I was most looking forward to on the trip because I'#d watched a film a couple of years ago that was filmed here. "Song for Raggy Boy" is a film about abuse in boys schools in Ireland and it's got Aiden Quinn and a few other famous faces in (highly recommend it).

It's very bare inside but has an eerie historic feeling that I've only ever got in one other place and that was Eastmoor Secure Unit in Leeds. A lot of the rooms have been painted and fake walls put in for filming but apart from that, it's pretty much as it was left it seems. The dormitories are all upstairs and there's a hall on the middle floor.

Thanks to JDholic and Irishmanlost for information on this place as it was quite hard to navigate in parts with its sporadic boarding attempts. It was reminscent of popping in and out of tubes in hamster cages (not that I've ever been a hamster but I was empathising)

Visited with JDholic and Speed.

The drive down from the north to here was just stunning and pure pleasure. I'd say if you wanted to experience crazy winding roads through leafy areas, go for this one. The sun was absolutely blinding as we whizzed past fields of sheep and cows that for once, weren't black and white. The car stereo was booming out Supertramp and Placebo (odd mix but it captured the mood well).

We pulled up to Killeshandra with about 3 hours of light left in the day. The ways in previously used were all blocked up so we popped on our superhero outfits and got creative.

Here's a bit of history on the convent and the Sisters of Mercy:


For 60 years Killeshandra has been home to one of the world's greatest missionary endeavors. For 60 years young women left Killeshandra to bring education, health care and, most important of all, the Christian message to the African peoples. Through their courage, their total commitment, their dedication, they have made an enormous contribution to the development of many third world countries. The full extent of this contribution may never be fully appreciated or recognized. For these brave women, their journey began in Killeshandra. They were members of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, and their convent, the mother house of the order, was situated a few miles outside of the town. At its peak the order was the largest missionary congregation for women in Ireland. Throughout the length and breadth of Ireland the sisters were simply and affectionately known as the 'Killeshandra nuns'. To tell their story is to tell the story of some of the bravest and most dedicated women ever to leave these shores.

Visited with JDholic and Speed.

Wet Wipe Rating=4/10
Animal Count=2 (I saw some birds)
Climbability=moderate to good

The Milford Bakery is about two hours drive from Belfast in the north of the south (ya get meh?) right out of the way along lots of windy roads. JDholic couldn't take his van over the border so we all squeezed into the Rookwagon with all the roadtrip stuff in the back (quite uncomfortable). The bakery is quite sizeable and like every industrial site we visited, it was all still full of machinery. We mooched around here for about an hour and then motored onto the next site after a brief encounter with Security Horse.

Visited with Speed.

Wet Wipe Rating=5/10 (due to anti-climb paint)
Pigeons=4/10 (quite annoying)
Views=8/10 (pretty spectacular)

We spent the night before trying to rinse McDonald's WIFI with little success and slept in the car park of a Peugeot garage next to one of the main roads leading into Dublin. From an early start at Belvoir hospital via a bakery and a convent, we finally rolled into Dublin around 9pm. Morale was running a little low due to tiredness and extreme mileage so I attempted to boost spirits by singing for the full 4 hours drive. I'm unsure whether this helped or not but by the next morning, we were once again experiencing epic industry in the city centre.

Access was straight forward, blatant and we got covered in anti-climb paint which doesn't actually work so I've demoted it to "mildy irritating paint". We were in here quite a while but it was still very early because we got up at 6am so after a quick search for an asylum that wasn't there, we progressed onto Cork.

A little history found on a redevelopment site:

Bolands Mills has been a landmark in the city of Dublin symbolising the two great traditions of agriculture and commerce in its successful operation as a thriving flour mill and bakery for over a century. Its key strategic location thrust it into an important historic role when it was occupied by republicans led by Eamon De Valera during the Rising of 1916 which ultimately led to the emergence of the modern Irish State. Eamon De Valera was later to become Taoiseach and then President of the new Irish Republic.

Visited with Irishmanlost, JDholic and Speed.

I first went here exactly a year ago but I was on crutches at the time so quite a few of the buildings weren't possible but the bits that we did get in to were great.
Returning a year later with working legs and more opportunity for climbing + some local knowledge led us to some more wards and crazy medical contraptions. There's not much I can add to the other reports posted so I'll just go on with the photos. I really liked this place, it smelled like all hospitals should....empty.

Visited with Irishmanlost, JDholic and Speed.

We visited here on our first day in Ireland and we'd been up since 2am getting the ferry over from Pembroke and driving alllll the way up to the north. It's a small site because a lot has been demolished since it was first explored but there's still a mint lab on site. Lots of bottles of chemicals and tea towels lying around

We went and looked at one more small hospital after this and then went back Irishmanlost's house and had fishy and chips before zonking out exhausted. Massive thanks to the guys for showing us round and Irishmanlost for letting us stop over.

Here's the photos including some nice fishy fish eye ones from the lens that Alias lent me for the trip.

Visited with Alias, Siologen and Speed.

Bit of a special one for me as I've wanted to get here for about three years now (better late than never) and I'm glad I waited actually because it was really worth it. The age of rediscovering industry on this scale in the UK is over sadly but this monster still goes on ticking away its old age by the docks.

As we all know, Spillers is one of the giants of derelict mill exploring and sadly (or happily for us) they are all pretty much on their way out now. It's been used as a backdrop for countless films and television programmes, recently most notably, "Life on Mars" and "Ashes to Ashes".

There's not much more I can say that hasn't been said before so without further ado, here's my photos. It was a stunning day weather wise as well and the company was second to none as always.

Visited with Turkey and Speed.

Another industrial beast from our mini break to Ipswich last weekend. The weather was gorgeous and we'd found an awesome little B&B with a broken shower and no channel 5 (Robin Hood denied). It's more trashed than the Kiddiminster one and the silos seem smaller (maybe because we weren't climbing from ground level).

It's filled with that unmistakeable yeasty (available in lumps), burnt sugar and dirty industry smell that we've all come to appreciate so much. There's some areas that are like floating floors of syrup which made balancing quite interesting and the ladders up the silos are a sticky mess. Incidently, if anyone goes here soon, can you pick up a pair of red sunglasses that went clattering down about five sets of ladders after falling off my head.

Visited with Speed.

Now I know I'm kind of taking the piss with the timescale on this one but I found a load of photos that I'd forgotten about and since I'm stuck in quarantine, I decided to do a load of reports of places we visited last summer. This was part of the "Scotland/Lincoln roadtrip of 35 site including ROC posts epicness" we did at the beginning of July.

Mansfield General is a great one and vastly under-rated for a relaxed and interesting explore just for the comedy security measures. They have these funny phone that have punchy numbers in nearly every room (including the toilets).

Just as we left Annesley, Speed decided to reverse into a kerb and the clip on the exhaust came loose so we had to pull into a garage where they refused to help so we parked right in front of their door and fixed it ourselves! suckers!

Despite being into this gaff for quite a while now, I'd never taken a trip to see Paddock on the open days so when someone kindly offered a chance for me to help out for the day, I accepted straight away. Little did I know that this was the day my body decided to go into meltdown but in the true spirit of a trooper, I battled on through the day sneezing on the visitors and saying I had swine flu.

Trips to Paddock as you all probably know are organised by Subterranea Britannica twice a year (the other is at London open house weekend in September) Rather than copy and pasting some words here, I'll just include the link which will provide you with everything you need and want to know about this site.

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/s...k/index1.shtml

The weather seemed somewhat promising in the morning and we managed to survive the whole day with only a few spits of rain whilst we sat outside munching KitKats and discussing ROC posts. A big thanks to Dark Prince and everyone else at Subbrit, it was great to meet you all. Cheers also to Markr for lending me his tripod (perhaps a new CX mini is the way to go) and Alias for lending me his fish eye lens, without which, everything would seem flat and normal.

Visited with Alias.

We actually went here about a month ago but better late than never eh? It ended up being an explorathon because by the end of the night, I think I'd visited about 8 sites in one day (ooh get me).

I vaguely remember reports from Fuller's back in the day but I guess it got shoved to the bottom of the pile as new stuff was being explored. I was pleasantly surprised by this place and despite it being small-ish, I wouldn't mind a trip back there on a chilled out and sunny day. Perfect for a picnic

The light was a crazy yellow in there so teamed up with a Nikon, it produced really warm/beta-carotene photos.

Visited with Speed and the House of Flounce.

Wheelchairs? Talk to me! This is the place to go if you want a good dose of dusty wheelchair and patients' records. We went here about a month ago but here is my belated report because I ran out of space, patience, interest etc.

We dropped down into the tunnels at one point and we could hear someone moving around so we sat and waited for a bit and then just legged it. I think there are people on the site during the week as we spotted some guys in high vis as we were driving away but they didn't look too serious.

This place is defintely worth a look if you're in the area as it's got a few unique features and the basement is full of gawdy funfair signs and stands. Pin the tail on the donkey!

We decided to take a trip to Hellingly for Alias's birthday but soon found the Main Hall on fire so we quickly called the boys in red and took some snaps. What a sad sight but not unexpected as it has happened so many times now.

Just a follow up report to the swimming pool really that the Flounclings explored in March but at the time, we couldn't find a way into the main building. So a couple of weeks later, me and Danny go back to discover a blindingly obvious way in-bloody typical!!

It's very grand inside with lots of lovely stained glass and heavy wood panelling. Towards the end of its life, it looked like it was used as a summer school for international students (lots of Russian and Spanish graffiti everywhere).

Visited with Danny and some onion rings.

We orginally planned to go here a couple of weeks ago with a car full of us but it kept hiding behind motorways and forests and proved impossible to find. However, after some google-earthing, we eventually found it. I expected it to be a bit more interesting than it was so when we got there, I was surprised to see how trashed it was with natural decay. It reminded me of a cross between Firbeck Hall and Chateau Noisy with its staircases and falling masonary. There's lots of mirrors everywhere (hence school of mirrors) which have somehow managed to survive in one piece when every other structure is falling around them.

Visited with Siologen and Alias.

I'd been exploring for about 12 hours by now so I was pretty whacked but me and Alias drove up to London for what is becoming a regular weekly thing to do. We'd just popped to Fullers in Redhill to kill some time before meeting Mr. Westminster. This was on the maybe list for last night so it was a gamble whether we were going to get in or not but luckily it paid off and we managed to see an absolutely MINT swimming pool.

Hackney Council closed the well-loved Haggerston Baths overnight in February 2000, following 10 years of poor
maintenance such as checking fire extinguishers, keeping gutters clear etc. The reasons given were health and
safety eg flaking paint. The timing happened to coincide with a £multi-million overspend on the new Clissold Pool
in Stoke Newington.Despite a big community campaign to pressurise Hackney Council into reopening it, nothing
has happened. The pool building is deteriorating and, despite its Grade II listed building status, is on the Council's
list for disposals. Local authorities are reluctant to pay £6 million to refurbish it.

Visited with Speed and Rigsby.

This has been on the cards for a while but it's taken a while to find a time when all of us were available to attempt it. Today, we succeeded and the inside was not disappointing. It was like finding a hall round every corner and all the rooms, despite seeming quite modern, were pretty elaborate.

Security are supposed to be pretty hot here but apart from a few vans and cars, we saw no sign of them luckily. The tower is incredible and it was often said that there was no way in but we found it in the end. However, it's covered in aerials so the views aren't great but it looks great from the outside.

We got round pretty much the whole place with no problems and even tried the chapel which is separate from the rest of the complex but sadly, it wasn't meant to be.

Visited with the House of Flounce.

We set out at ridiculous o' clock with some of us having no sleep and having to storm on through the morning with a bottle of Powerade and lots of enthusiasm. The seven seater car was packed with blankets, pillows and bacon sandwiches and we were off! Recently, this has become the norm with exploring trips. No more living off skanky petrol station food and energy drinks for roadtrips because this is not just "Urban Exploring".........it's "Extreme Picnicking"

Our original plan went kerfuffle so we picked from the list of back-up sites and made our way to Ipswich. As if by some cruel twist of fate, we had picked one weekend out of like 50 that Speed wasn't going to be in the vicinity which was a bummer because of him being King of Suffolk and all things Essex really. We will return however and do all the other stuff avec Speed who was, instead, brushing up on his Franglais.

After what seemed like hours of driving, we finally found Ipswich Lido which liked to hide behind trees and pretend to be other things like trucks and bits of forest. Photoshoots and a bit of sunbathing/sleeping later, we were ready to go. Exhausted by such swimming pool stress, we then zoomed back down to Colchester and lounged in the health spa for 3 hours and ate sandwiches that were bigger than the county that we were in.

Here's a bit of history nicked from the Save Broomhill Pool website,

Ipswich has a long association with swimming, which can be traced back as far as 1329. Sometime in the year 1329-30 John, the son of William Owyth was found drowned in the quay at Ipswich after swimming with some other mariners. Its heyday was clearly the 1960's when we had 2 Olympic size outdoor pools and 2 indoor pools. Before the Second World War we could afford to heat the open air pools to 70F, today we are told we cannot afford even to keep one open air pool open.

Visited with Alias and Siologen.

A strange name for this one but I guess it does exactly what it says on the tin (although we didn't find any empty carriages). We did however find a dead mouse, a few dead birds and lots of rubbish. We mooched around the tunnels for a bit singing Blur's Country House and the theme tune to Round The Twist (have you ever...ever felt like this?) and mainly discussed mammary glands (surprise surprise!)

The tunnel itself is pretty impressive and looks like your average spaceship but is incredibly hard to light due to its size, hence the very dark photos. We then went on to do some other stuff but Alias decided to shake hands with some rusty nails and we were off to the hospital to get him stitched back up. We ended up sitting in casualty for a while telling all the nurses and doctors the stories behind the injuries. I nodded off on the hospital benches using a bag of Haribo as a pillow. So all in all, it was a wicked night and I think I eventually got to bed at around 5:30am with more bruises and cuts on my legs than a few hours previously. Cheers to everyone for a great...if eventful night.

Visited with Mofo.

Wow! This was a pleasant surprise! It looked great from the outside and it was just as good on the inside. Access was extremely comedy and I can't believe the rozzers weren't waiting for us on the way out but it must have been our lucky day! As the history below says, it started out life as a grand cinema and then eventually met its fate as all cinemas do and became a bingo hall. Lots of pigeons, lots of seats, lots of holes in the floor! Sorry the photos are a bit garbage, I seem to be having a bad photo couple of months-meh!

A construction for a local consortium, the Astoria opened with 'The Private Life of Henry VIII'.

It had full stage facilities and a spectacular Art Deco interior decoration scheme. An illuminated Compton 3 manual organ was installed.

The stage was infrequently used for live shows up until 1958 when the theater closed for renovations which installed a vast 70mm screen in front of the old proscenium, removed the organ, and curtained the impressive auditorium.

The balcony steppings were altered and a new projection suite constructed at (and into) the rear balcony.

Long runs of such films as 'Earthquake' ensued and the cinema continued successfully until just after the other ABC house in town was quadrupled in 1976. The Astoria closed the following year and became a bingo casino.

This lasted until approximately 1996 after which the Astoria has stood empty and unused.

It has recently been bought for around 1 million pounds and is due to be restored (not known if to original design) and reopened as a live (mainly concert) venue.

The Astoria is a Grade II Listed building.

Visited with the House of Flounce.

Our visit here was purely accidental because we were actually looking for something else when we drove past this place and decided to take a closer look. I didn't actually realise this was Bellersby until I found some paperwork and remembered it was reported a couple of years back. We didn't get into the main building but we'll be back when there's more light as it's really only just up the road.

The swimming pool is cool none the less so I've decided to pop a report up even though it is 5am-grrr insomnia! I've fully given up trying to take good photos because they just keep coming out shit! So just happy snappy shots until I can get back my mojo.

Visited with a packet of jelly babies.

The last week has been an amalgamation of sewing, knitting, hospital visits and burning myself with my new glue gun. I was pissed off with what I was making for the first time ever and decided some easy, local explores were what was needed for some relaxation.

First stop today was just down the road in Stockport and then I went on to have a mooch around the air raid shelters. Most Wankered did a special ghost hunt here so that particular feature has dominated most of the search engines when I was looking for some history to copy and paste into here....hence, no history.

I was just about to go into the mortuary when I looked over my shoulder and saw a contractor in high-vis with his back to me, getting something out of his car boot. RETREAT RETREAT!!!! In an exaggerated tip toe run across the forecourt, I managed to hide in a patch of trees until he was gone.

Sorry the photos are merde but franchement mon cher, je m'en fous The computer that I usually upload the photos to was all unplugged so I uploaded them to photobucket and edited them on there. Safe to say, I WON'T be doing it again.

When Girls Aloud sung their top ten hit, "The Sound of the Underground", they couldn't have got it more wrong. The Metro doesn't sound like five skinny girls dressed in shiny lycra outfits. It is grubby, screeching, rumbling and dark-oh and did I mention fantastic?

Over the four days that me and Scott were in Paris, we did all the usual things that couples do when going on a romantic mini break like hijacking the driver's cabs, dodging the third rail so as to not get fried, running down sewers in trainers and generally getting up to no good.

Our first experience of the hidden parts of the Metro were a breezy tunnel where trains ran about every two minutes which gave us just enough time to leave foreign coins on the tracks and then spend the next ten minutes trying to find where they landed when they got squished.

"Have you got any money for a drink?"

"No, my currency is all squashed"

The noise is just incredible and even when you are in the abandoned parts, it feels like a train is coming straight for you. It is very nerve-wracking and knowing that at all times, you are approximately two feet away from death is enough to keep you on your toes.

You also develop a healthy "metro glow" which isn't actually a glow at all. You come out with a face like a chimney sweep and black hands and you wonder why everyone is giving you funny looks as you stand innocently on the platform waiting for a legitimate journey home.

Our time in Paris seemed to whizz by and I can't wait to go back and experience even more of this crazy underground system. Jumping barriers, riding in between the connecting trains and sitting in the driver's seat is what gets your blood pumping-there's no doubt about that

These are photos of the first mission down the metro which included one abandoned station which I'm going to call Les Bananapouletpoisson because I can't remember what it was called or what region it was in.

Visited with Dsankt, QX and Le Dickhead.

We awoke to a morning of heavy snow which only worsened as we progressed north into Paris's gangster side of town. We passed cars with rags hanging out of the petrol caps waiting for the guilty party to return and send them up in flames. The security measures on this place, whether they still worked or not I don't know, were extreme which is what you would expect given its size, location and use. After a bit of climbing, we approached this gaudy pink/peachy power station and were soon inside its immense turbine halls. I have no idea why they decided to paint it the same colour as some cheap Spanish holiday villa because to be fair, whatever colour a power station is, it's still pumping shit into the air and causing visual pollution to those living next to it (personally, I wouldn't mind living next to one).

This power station in the ghettos is also home to some pretty good graffiti which just adds to the charm of the place. We dossed around here for a while and me and Scott filmed some videos on the new D90, QX climbed to the roof and swung around on the rafters and Dsankt swept the floor with his own self-styled sponge broom.

Incidentally, we rarely had a ticket and we also didn't care!

With the dulcet tones of Le Beatles still ringing in my ears from passing through the Lennon dedicated Liverpool airport, we set off in search of some ass-kicking dirty metro fun. Situated somewhere in Paris (traveling by metro only doesn't do wonders for your above-ground spatial awareness but were we bovvered?)

The green military paint and luminous wall panels echoed everything that I associate with air raid shelters/dark passages etc. So like true urban adventurists, we drew giant phalluses on the glow in the dark wall panels with headtorches to light our way. The tunnels are a weird half egg/Witley style shape and wind round to make the shape of a horseshoe where at the end, they meet a track and this is where the trains are stored.

Some of the trains are relatively new and used for training but other date right back to the 1930s and from their interiors, this just shows what little effort is made into differentiating first and second class nowadays.

Regardless of their insides, all the trains have been used as canvases to over-zealous taggers and graffiti artists and they look fantastic in that state.

Visited with Scott.

This was just a mini explore to add on to the other stuff we had done that day and seeing as it was only 3 miles away, wed decided to check it out. It's very small and most of the floors upstairs aren't suitable for walking on. It's placed in the middle of a new housing estate so when we rocked up in the Rookwagon, there were lots of men in suits walking around and talking loudly into their phones.

Chapel Allerton Hospital is an NHS hospital which includes the Chapel Allerton Orthopaedic Centre. It was established in 1926. In the building and grounds of Gledhow Grove mansion, a Grade II listed building which has now been converted to housing. The hospital now occupies buildings which were opened in 1994, across Harehills Lane from its original site. There is no Accident and Emergency department but the hospital dues boast a leading orthopaedic centre. The original site has since been redeveloped for housing. The location of the hospital borders Chapeltown and as such could be equally considered to be in Chapeltown.

Visited with Scott.

Well me and Dweeb had planned to go here a couple of weeks ago but traffic said "noooo". So seeing as it was near to where we were heading, I added it to the list of things to see that day. Gannex is your typical mill complete with pigeony goodness almost a foot thick in some places but it has some great treasures hidden away. The best thing being the old photos which I didn't get to look at as closely as I would have liked because we left pretty sharpish after getting into the other side of the complex.

The template room upstairs was great but whilst I was taking one photo, I think I felt the floor beneath me moving which was slightly un-nerving. There's lots of Gannex-branded things still left behind from embroidered labels to actual raincoats and shoe-mouldings.

Visited with Scott.

This was the first of a couple of places we decided to go on our trip north-ishwards. Dragging ourselves out of bed and armed with a couple of postcodes scribbled onto the back of an envelope, we ventured out into the thick fog. Driving conditions were undesirable with just ten metre visibilty to play with. The trip towards Leeds was over in no time but included a hefty "discussion" over the rules of the middle lane on the motorway-probably best left alone!

This huge swimming pool did not disappoint in its impressiveness even if it was very soggy. The pikeys and kids have got in over the last year and evidence of vandalism is rife. There's still lots to see though and well worth a visit if you're in the area.

Visited with Dweeb.

Worrying that I am slowly slipping into semi-retirement, I've managed to get my arse in gear and post some reports of places from the last couple of months.

This was a nice little place that luckily Dweeb remembered after we got stuck in traffic and had to change our plans if we wanted to make the most of the light on these short daylight hours. I wimped out on the tower because, quite sensibly, I valued my life more.

Visited with Userscotteroo, Dweeb and Sneak.

It's been a quiet start to the new year as big art projects have taken precedent over getting out there and doing stuff but here's to uncovering some epic things in the next few months! I'd been badering Scott for the last couple of days to take a trip down here so for the opportunity to coincide with a visit from our fluffy-haired midlander, it was the perfect day for it.

I don't know a lot about this spot and I think it has probably been extensively covered by the founders back in March so only photos from me this time I have just purchased for myself a shiny new camera (D90 FTW) and have been desperate to take it out for its first exploring trip so apologies if the photos are a bit hairy as I'm still getting used to the big buttons.

It was a textbook in and out with very few problems and a most enjoyable way to spend an afternoon before we sauntered along to our next site of the day.

Visited with my new purple Christmas tights and Marks & Spencer jumper

I've always wanted to climb a crane in the daytime because I suck big time at night photography so I seized this opportunity today. This is the construction for the new shopping centre and bus station they are building at the bottom of town. I explored the old shopping centre about two and half years ago and I think it's safe to say what is replacing it will look a lot nicer. It's being built with real fake bath stone

The sun was so bright, I could hardly see in front of me when I was climbing but once I got to the top, the view was fantastic. I slag Bath off all the time for being a boring city to live in but you have to admire the stunning Georgian buildings. I guess growing up there, you become immune to its charms and crave something more modern and fast-paced.

I only had an hour spare before I had to be back on Mummy Rookinella's orders so that I could help cook lunch for the mountains of grannies we had to feed today.

So here are some photos of the tower crane(s) in Bath. Merry Christmas everyone!

The calm before the storm...this is what it felt like today. On the eve of a day when most people will be desperately unwrapping unwanted socks expecting something much more spectacular and a gluttony of mince pies will be scoffed until the hosts lay comatose on a sofa designed only for two. I hate Christmas.

I was under strict instruction today to be back at 6pm for the festivities to begin. This time last year, I was working in a disgusting coffee shop and not out doing what all good people should do on Christmas eve......explore a paper mill

I was delving through the Dweeb Chronicles yesterday in search of some good industrial stuff to visit in the cold afternoon sunshine and this one came up trumps. It took us a while to find the exact location due to the plethora of derelict mills in the area (it was minus numbers outside and I didn't want to be aimlessly wandering around )

I think we missed quite a bit looking back at the old reports but the carding machine was a stunner to see. It is just like they stopped production "mid-spin".

I'm not sure why more people haven't tried this even though it is a bit shit. A good proportion of it has been demolished so I guess a couple of months ago, it would have been a minter. Keep up at the back!!

Anyway, so we did a recce the other night but we only had a mobile phone light between us and I kept treading on stuff that went CLANGGGGG. Exploring hospitals in the dark isn't the best idea in the world so we came back today for a proper nose around before moving on to Greaves Hall.

'd forgotten about this place until I saw the report the other day and remembered an intriguing water tower in its grounds. Realising it was only five miles away from where we were heading already, we decided to give it a bash.

We bypassed the hospital buildings because there were loads of dogwalkers and it looked like hanging death to be honest. So here's the water tower and our convoluted way of climbing it, It's a beaut!

The Severn Bridge (Welsh: Pont Hafren) is a suspension bridge spanning the River Severn between South Gloucestershire, just north of Bristol, England, and Monmouthshire in South Wales, via Beachley, a peninsula between the Severn and Wye estuaries. It is the original Severn road crossing between England and Wales and took five years to construct at a cost of £8 million.[1] It replaced the Aust ferry.

The bridge was opened on 8 September 1966 by Queen Elizabeth II, who hailed it as the dawn of a new economic era for South Wales. The bridge was granted Grade I listed status in 1998.

It was a toss up between this and another old cinema in regards to what we did with our evening but in the end, we both thought that a bit of scary high dangling was what was necessary for a Tuesday night. It had been a steller day weather wise with very little wind so ideal bridge climbing conditions.

So it was Superman style, trousers over the harness again just like we did for the Clifton Suspension Bridge a couple of weeks ago. I had a mad search for some discreet climbing attire but all I could find was a jumper that was brighter than the sun.

Visited with Scott and Yaz.

We were mooching around toon looking for art galleries and record shops but couldn't walk pass some of the local sites without a quick jaunt inside so here's the Ramada Hotel (not as nice as Palace and no shoe buffers to nick) It's pretty high until you look up and see City Tower and then Beetham futher in the distance. Year of the boat? Month of the Hotel?

This bridge has been on my to-do list for a while now but I usually dismissed it because there's a lack of people mad enough in the Bristol area but tonight, we decided we would go for it. We did a drive by recce on the way to Toys R Us earlier in the day and after spending the afternoon building stuff out of lego, we put on our serious faces and went to do some ninja skillorzzz climbing.

To say that this bridge is covered in cameras is an understatement. There are 22, plus two guard huts and 15 people resurfacing the road but not one of them noticed us A couple of chicken run up attempts were needed to test the waters but then we went for it. It swayed a SURPRISING amount. Just as we suggested not using our safety lines, the wind blew and the wires spun-ermmm now would be a good time to clip on....

Once we got to the top, we were a bit disappointed to find we couldn't get on the roof of the towers but by that time, I think we had pushed our luck so we came shuffling back down.

This bridge was a risky one to say the least because of the number of suicides off it per year so they take any trouble quite seriously.

Another one ticked off the Bristol list I had been eyeing this up ever since I moved to Bristol trying to think of ingenious ways in but never really having the balls to do it on my own. This was our third attempt because we had always been put off by the swarms of police and drunk people as it is in the busiest part of Bristol.

I remember visiting the Imax when I was about 14 to see the Matrix in 3D and feeling very sick and having to close my eyes. Apart from Imax cinemas being very expensive, I personally think they are a bit gash...maybe other people thought that too and that's why it closed.

Along with the cinema, there is the "Wildwalk" which is some kind of ultra scientific nature trail where you can press buttons and twizzle nobbles etc. It smelled like a mouldy greenhouse although not as bad as I thought it would. I was half expecting noxious gases from all the dying stuff in there-it looks gross from the outside. I remember the gift shop being AMAZING though-pity that wasn't still there

Once inside we rushed around taking as many photos as we could because we were pretty sure we were going to get caught and this was not the kind of place you would want to get shafted. After running round seeing as much as possible, we decided to leave and not push our luck.

Back outside, we see at least 15 police cars and an armed response unit because of some domestics on the waterfront (not for us thankfully). We make a swift walk/jog back to the car and slip back into the night, not quite believing what we just got away with.

Visited with Scott, Clebby and Da Mop (previously recced with Monstar, Markymark and Kinger)

Well, this was a bit of an eventful trip but those are always the most enjoyable in my opinion. We had tried to get in here the day before but the psycho car park attendant chased us through the city centre "don't look now" style. However, seeing as it's only 35 miles away, me and Scott met up with the Gloucester Boys the next day to get it done.

Access was pretty straight forward and led us to the good stuff. One side of the college was full of workshops with all the workbenches and machinery still there. The tallest building of the site was pretty empty apart from lots of fire extinguishers and strip lights.

Visited with Userscott.

It was our third night of adventuring and Sunday had been particularly eventful but we weren't finished for the day so after some chips (numberrrr 69), we set off into town to find these mysterious barges that Scott had recced whilst I was at work the previous evening.

Like professional ninjas, we parked the car in a very obvious place (also somewhere that some pikey tried to nick it last time-ERROR) and made our way to the point where we would dangle like spiders until we reached our way in.

Some bits of the barge was filled with manky water and the rest with rotten canoes. There were kitchens, bedrooms and loads of odd stuff lying around which indicated that it was once used as some kind of Scout HQ.

Visited with Speed-the exploring drug of choice

We were both keen to have a look at this place because we're SlabFans (TM) and it was kind of close to where we were exploring the day before. We had a bit of a wander round the rest of the hospital but it wasn't so great so we stuck with the best bit-the mortuary. I wouldn't mind a return trip to have a further look around and to get some more Hackney plastic animals.

Visited with UkMayhem and Speed.

What a gorgeous day to visit! Sunshine always works well with Nikons it seems so I was quite pleased with the results I got photography wise. My 10-20 broke AGAIN half way through this explore and there was no Vivo to blame this time. Sigma are "apparently" sending a new one....eventually.

There's not a lot more I can add to this report as UkMayhem pretty much covered the history of the site in his report here. I'd urge anyone to go and have a look at this place because it was such a big company and one that has suffered hard in the whole "let's remove industry out of Britain" thang. Apparently, there used to be around 100 chimneys here.

Visited with Speed.

The Radcliffe Infirmary was a hospital in central Oxford, England, located at the southern end of Woodstock Road on the western side, backing onto Walton Street. The Radcliffe Infirmary, named after physician John Radcliffe, opened in 1770 and was Oxford's first hospital, and closed on 27 January 2007.
In 1758, the initial proposals to build a hospital in Oxford were put forward at a meeting of the Radcliffe Trustees, who were administering John Radcliffe's estate. £4000 was made available for the new hospital, which was constructed on land given by Thomas Rowney, the Member of Parliament for Oxford.
A number of pioneering moments in medical history occurred at the hospital. Penicillin was first tested on patients on 27 January 1941. The first Utah Array (later known as the BrainGate) implantation in a human (Kevin Warwick) took place on 14 March 2002[1].

Visited with Scott and Yaz.
Harpurhey! Birthplace of tehhh famous Anthony Burgess and home to some rather odd locals. We'd had a late night the night before due to dancing girls, Morgan Freeman, chocolate coins and a stolen helium balloon. We rocked up to Harpurhey at around 3ish and bought some cakes before quickly making it into the baths. This place was in much better condition then what I expected it to be which was a nice surprise. We didn't spend too much time here due to extreme poltergeist activity and the fact that we had to get to our next site before it got dark.

Visited with Yaz and Scott.

This impromptu visit was part of a bizarre trip to Manchester for many reasons including nearly getting beaten up on a roof by a bunch of Polish guys and dancing girls by the plenty. This was my third time here but it's been nearly a year since the last visit so it seemed like a good way to fill some empty hours. I don't care if the word "epic" is falling from favour-this place IS epic. I wanted to see the famous rows of sinks but like every time, I forget where they were.

St Joseph's College, Upholland is a Former Roman Catholic seminary, situated at Walthew Park, Upholland, Lancashire, England. The foundation of the large building was laid in April 1880 and college was opened in 1883. The buildings have recently been deconsecrated.

St Joseph's College was founded in 1880 by Bishop Bernard O'Reilly to be the Seminary serving the North West of England. The college was formally opened in 1883 and was situated in Walthew Park, Upholland, the geographic centre of the Diocese of Liverpool.

Visited with Speedio.

We went here as part of the big northern extended Scotland road trip. I think we went here after Firbeck Hall but I may have got the days mixed up. Cheers to Sixxfingers for the location info

Nocton Hall is a historic listed building in the village of Nocton, in Lincolnshire. Originally constructed for the Ellys family, it burnt down in 1834 and was rebuilt in 1841 for the first Earl of Ripon, who lived at the steward's house in Nocton while the house was being built. The US Army's 7th General Hospital was based at Nocton Hall during World War Two.

Visited with Dweeb, Speedio and Turkey Lurkey.

I've FINALLY got round to posting up some reports of the sites we've seen on various road trips recently. Broadford Works was the best site of the road trip in my opinion so it's taken ages to decide what photos to show because I took so many. After an ace night out in Aberdeen with the emo kids and Agatha, Gorecki's mum fed us bacon rolls and sent us on our way. The size of this place is insane. Imagine Bamberbridge and multiply by four It was my two favourite things rolled into one, wool and exploring=heaven.

Visited with Speed and Rigsby.

I'm a bit slow posting this up but we went here last weekend as part of our south coast adventure day. This was my favourite site of the weekend. The size and full-on decay really blew me away, I can understand why people went on about it so much. I'm not going to bother with its history because it's probably been done to death but here's my photos of spectacular industry on a massive scale.

Visited with Speed and Rigsby.

This was site number one of our "Let's do 4 sites on the south coast in 12 hours" road trip. At silly o' clock after a night in the car, we approached Graylingwell like 3 knights each armed with a weapon. One with a maglite, one with a tripod and one with a stick. I had the stick-it wasn't very effective We popped in with no major problems apart from a close shave on our way out. The hall is spectacular and the corridors a lovely combination of brown and grey. Predictably, I was poorly pete so we rushed off to Mcdonalds so I could die quietly whilst the others ate EggMcMuffins and laughed at unfortunately breasted wives in green T-shirts

Visited with Rigsby and Speed.

We found it with no problems and recced it that evening before settling down for a short night's sleep and getting up super early to do Graylingwell and then doing this place afterwards. It seemed like it was partly converted for a short while into some kind of government administrative job centre thing but the remains of the school were everywhere. Lots of labs and art classrooms upstairs. Even the gas for the bunsen burners was still on

Visited with Rigsby but extra work done by Scotty and Tumbles.

So here are the photos of what was down there. I had to fight my way through the cobwebs and dead stuff just to get down the staircase which proves no one has been down there for a good 5-10 years I'd say.

Visited with Scotty and Tumbles.

We think it was originally a railway tunnel and then converted into an air raid shelter that catered for a large number of Bristol's residents along with the Clifton Rocks Railway. Once the war was over, some time after, it was used as a shooting range/rifle club. Evidence of both its uses are apparent throughout the shelter. The original toilets are still there and so is a lot of the corrugated walls but some of the ceilings have been suspended by the rifle club.

Visited with Vivo, Speed and Winchester on our Summer Eurotrip.

Vastness and amazingness is not enough to describe this place. Every aspect of this place made it a wicked explore to end the trip on. We were knackered but I'm glad we made the effort to do this on the way back from Berlin. I think this is a popular destination for the European explorers and I can see why. I don't know a lot about the history of the place.

Visited with Speed, Winchester and Vivo.

The day we visited here was so sunny and hot, we'd nearly doubled our icecream consumption by lunchtime which may have contributed to the manic mood we were all in by the time we arrived at Beringen. First, we wandered round the museum part and Hans led us into the back room of the bar and down a dark passageway before emerging with four strawberry Cornettos. It was all very strange, we laugh nervously at the barman who looked like a viking and the old fella who knew EXACTLY what we had come to Beringen for. Outside, we basked in the sunshine lobbing stones at eachother discussing how we were going to go about getting into the buildings whilst Hans and the viking looked on with increased interest.

The golden age of coal production started right after World War II and lasted until the late 1950s, when cheaper energy sources were made available elsewhere. The last coal mine in Beringen closed its doors on October 28, 1989. The remaining slag heaps and mining buildings are still very obvious around the city.

Visited with Speed, Winchester and Vivo.

Beelitz-Heilstätten, a district of the town, is home to a large hospital complex of about 60 buildings including a cogeneration plant erected from 1898 on according to plans of architect Heino Schmieden. Originally designed as a sanatorium by the Berlin workers' health insurance corporation, the complex from the beginning of World War I on was a military hospital of the Imperial German Army. During October and November 1916, Adolf Hitler recuperated at Beelitz-Heilstätten after being wounded in the leg at the Battle of the Somme. In 1945, Beelitz-Heilstätten was occupied by Soviet forces, and the complex remained a Soviet military hospital until 1995, well after the German reunification. In December 1990 Erich Honecker was admitted to Beelitz-Heilstätten after being forced to resign as the head of the East German government.

Following the Soviet withdrawal, attempts were made to privatize the complex, but they were not entirely successful. Some sections of the hospital remain in operation as a neurological rehabilitation center and as a center for research and care for victims of Parkinsons disease. The remainder of the complex, including the surgery, the psychiatric ward, and a rifle range, was abandoned in 2000. As of 2007, none of the abandoned hospital buildings or the surrounding area were secured, giving the area the feel of a ghost town. This has made Beelitz-Heilstätten a destination for curious visitors and a film set for movies like The Pianist from 2002.

Visited with all the members of the Achtung Baby Roadtrip which included Winchester, Vivo and Speed.

As others have experienced, this is quite a hard place to find. We had eaten too much sugar, it was a boiling hot day and we had our legs hanging out the windows as we were driving to try and stay cool so we sat in the car giggling whilst Daddy Speed (TM) had to take control of the situation.

Visited with Vivo, Speed and Winchester.

This was the third massive site we did on one day so we were pretty knackered but raring to go on this one. We sat in the car and ate Ketchup flavour crisps and laughed at a girl who ran like a duck and two boys playing a dangerous game of football/volleyball. Me and Winch spoke broken French which was to become to basis of our communication for the rest of the trip. I loved Cheratte even if it was a bit fucked-probably one of my favourite sites of the whole roadtrip.

Visited with Jean-Luc, Vivo, Speed and Winchester.

After spending a night on Jean-Luc's sofa, we went to this place! It was some kind of flour mill I think with a security cat/fox/small dog. It's been visited quite a lot by the international explorers and regarded as one of the better sites out there. We saw more epic stuff than this on our travels but it was a nice one to start the morning off with.

Visited with members of the boy band, Achtung Baby.

This was my favourite site from our "Internationaaaale" road trip. The scale was just incredible, something that is impossible to show in my photos. We stopped off in a tiny corner shop in the centre of the village where we felt very local and nearly "accidently" stole a big pack of crisps. More icecream was also consumed. The size of this place just pisses over all the big industrial sites in the UK. In Belgium, we do it BIG!! We climbed right to the top and gazed at the creepy crawly people below.

Visited with Speed.

Lack of hotel meant that we spent a surprisingly comfortable night listening to Philosophy podcasts on my Ipod to send us to sleep in a Tesco car park- 9 hours kip in a car! We got up reasonably early and drove around Sleaford until we eventually spotted something that looked like a maltings. Within 2 minutes of getting in, a pigeon pooed on my head so after completing a successful girly tissue fuss, we carried on and explored the rest of the place. The tower is awesome and has one of those trademark twirly staircases. An excellent site

Visited with Speed.

Originally, this was only a "maybe" on the list but we were quickly running out of sites due to being super organised and greedy with time so we gave it a bash fully expecting another shotgun encounter. A quick call to Sixxfingers and we had a better idea of where to go and to our surprise, we got in pretty much without any trouble despite the access looking stupidly dangerous. The building looks like it has taken a beating in the last year due to roof damage. The floors are horrible to walk on especially when it's tipping it down outside. My photos are a bit dodgy coz it was so dark in there and I was too lazy to take a tripod. The cellar was definately a highlight and so was the swimming pool and vintage gym equipment.

Visited with Speed.

We went here on day 6th of our road trip (I think) and we nearly didn't find it. Apparently huge dishes have the power to hide when you're looking out for them from the sunny heights of the lowest Rover in the UK. The dishes are beautiful and really photogenic when the light faded. I was told it's possible to climb to the top but I kept sliding down, being stabbed by little bolts all the way down Here's the pics! Cheers to OT for helping us find them!

RAF Stenigot was a World War 2 radar station situated near Donington on Bain, Lincolnshire, England.

It was part of the Chain Home radar network, intended to provide long range early warning for raids from Luftflotte V and the northern elements of Luftflotte II along the approaches to Sheffield and Nottingham and the central midlands.

After World War II, the site was retained as part of the Chain Home network. In 1959 it was upgraded to a communications relay site as part of the ACE High programme, which involved adding four tropospheric scatter dishes.

The site was decommissioned in the late 1980s and was mostly demolished by 1996.

Visited with Turkey, Speed and Dweeb.

Posted in here because Pixie said the owners were watching the websites so hush hush This was the second mill of our roadtrip that made materially type things so predictably, I enjoyed it a lot. There's shelves of cashmere, weaves and spun cotton everywhere. I used my 50mm for most of these photos so sorry if it's a close-up orientated report but the colours were awesome in here and deserved particular attention.

Visited with Dweeb, Turkey and Speed.

We went here after having a poke round Lord Line and J Marr. The ladder inside was bad even though I really like heights. I think it was the last wobbly bit that gave me a case of the shakes but the reward lay at the top. It was like a pigeon graveyard at the top which I was loving with the 50mm and the roof had a fantastic view too.

On a recent exploring trip to Belfast, I took some time out to document what I could of the murals and peace walls in the city. My visit coincided with that of President Bush so I also managed to get some photos of a protest that was taking place outside City Hall.

Visited with Irishmanlost and BillAnd.

Ok, so that's not the "official" name for this shipyard but I guess this is what it's most famous for. It was where the famous ship was built by the equally famous shipbuilders, Harland & Wolf. Her sister ship, 'The Olympic' was also built here. At the moment, there's not a great deal to see there because they are in the middle of building a tourist attraction devoted to the ship due to open in 2012 with funding from the National Lottery. Unfortunately we couldn't get into the paintshop because it is being used for filming so afterwards, we took a wander down the docks to see the Harland & Wolf cranes close up.

Visited with BillAnd, Slinky2000, Irishmanlost, Pacie.

Within 2 hours of seeing BillAnd's report of this place, I had booked my ticket and started packing. It was the first of five sites to see on the first leg of my Belfast trip (full report coming soon) and it didn't disappoint. I'd been up since 5am and BillAnd came to collect me at the airport but no time for resting. I was straight off the plane and into the courthouse to take some photos. The courthouse itself is a stunning building but what went on in there is what makes this explore all the more special. Here's a little bit of history I have nicked from various places:

Visited with BillAnd and Irishmanlost.

This was the last site after a long day just as the sun was going down. I don't really know a lot about it but it seemed similar to Longcross but much better. There's lots to see even though, from the outside, it looks a little bleak. We found Halloween decorations which made a nice surprise from the traditional abandoned Christmas decorations that usually litter the sites that we look at.

Visited with Slinky2000, Pacie, BillAnd and Irishmanlost.

Our second site of the day and another stunner with its operating theatre and mountains of cool stuff left behind. We nearly got nabbed here but thanks to the long grass around the site and a game of sleeping lions, we crept past unnoticed . Belvoir Park is quite a modern hospital despite the buildings looking very asylum-esque. It was in fact a cancer hospital treating people of all ages. The electricity is still on throughout the hospital and is in very good condition apart from being a bit messy in places.

Visited with Tumbles

The Grotto at Goldney House is a highly decorated grotto, dating from 1739, in Clifton, Bristol, England.

It was built between 1737 and 1764 (dated 1739) and has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building. It is decorated inside with shells, quartz and rock crystal and inside is a pillared hall with fountains, rock pool, statue of Neptune and a Lion's Den. In 1762-5 Thomas Paty was employed in "grinding, gooping and laying" tiles for the Grotto.

The grotto was built as the centrepiece of the gardens by Thomas Goldney III, a Bristol merchant who was a partner of William Champion in the Coalbrookdale Works.

Visited with Tumbles.

This was supposed to be one of our usual pre-nightshift recceing evening but it turned out to be a slightly more exciting but stressful evening. We parked up outside this place but there were still people milling around so we planned to come back later after we had checked out our other site (report coming soon).

As we were leaving, we spotted this strange foreign guy with a guitar under his arm making his way round the back of the Cathedral. I must have been so distracted by this site that I tripped over and broke myself. An hour later, I'm exploring the BRI and hopping my way to X-Ray with a broken foot!

Visited with Neko, OT, Root, Rigsby, Well Wasp, Vivo, SparkUK and Rug later on. We were underground for just under 24 hours and raced around most of the touristy bits of the complex before coming up for air and then going back underground to see the 13th district. A fantastic trip, a big thanks to all involved!

The Catacombs of Paris are a famous underground ossuary in Paris, France. Organized in a renovated section of the city's vast network of subterranean tunnels and caverns towards the end of the 18th century, it became a tourist attraction on a small scale from the early 19th century, and was open to the public on a regular basis from 1867.

This cemetery covers a portion of Paris' former mines near the Left Bank's Place Denfert-Rochereau, in a location that was just outside the city gates before Paris expanded in 1860. Although this cemetery covers only a small section of underground tunnels officially called "les carrières de Paris" ("the quarries of Paris"), Parisians today popularly refer to the entire network as "the catacombs".

Visited with Tumbles.

A nice little place and probably a lot more to see here if you can navigate round the site. It's been attacked by the copper thieves unfortunately but there's still some little gems like a really nice old industrial sewing machine and some paperwork from the 60s. It seems like this place turned into a laundry for big businesses towards the end of its life coz there's work uniforms everywhere and massive laundry bags of every colour imaginable. It's a shame we couldn't get into this place just after it closed coz I bet the washing machines would have been enormous but I think it was one of those sites that gets stripped as it closes

Anyway, here's the pics and thanks to Tumbles for getting up really early to meet me from work so that I could then go home for a snooze before the evening's adventures

Visited with Nikkorn and Rubby

Poultons used to be an Oolite limestone quarry that was converted into a mushroom farm and later, an air raid shelter. It opened in 1841 and closed in 1990. It is quite similar to bits of Monkton Farleigh CAD in appearance with its white-washed walls.

Rahhhhh West Park finally! I've wanted to see this place for ages and apart from a stealth mission to the padded cell with Ridds nearly a year ago, this was all totally new to me. Visited with Ridds, Rigsby, Ether, Sinnerman and Saddam at silly o' clock on the coldest morning of the year. It was worth ever freezing cold moment though. I went camera mad and took loads of photos but hopefully I've captured something from the day. A brilliant explore with some qualiteee comedy moments. Cheers everyone and cheers Ridds for letting me crash out on your sofa.

Visited with Rigsby.

First I was afraid. I was petrified........when Rigsby suddenly announced that we weren't in fact going to explore the Albion Shipyard, we were going to sail down a filthy river in the centre of Bristol at 7am on a Saturday morning. Talk of this explore had been going on for months and I was keen to get out onto the water and name the boat, there'd be no stopping us.....until I ACTUALLY HAD to get in it

Now I kind of like to think that I'm not scared of a lot of things. Heights=love them, spiders=no problem, dirty water river in my face=runnnnn! The hypochondriac in me goes into overdrive and before I've even looked at the water, I've suddenly contracted Vile's disease, Lyme's disease and Typhus. Amongst my other phobias including woodlice, vomit, mayonnaise and eggs is unsanitary conditions which makes me wonder how I can do this hobby at all really However, when the giant inflatable yellow thing and Rigsby all buoyed up are staring at you then sometimes you have to just go for it.

Captain Rigsby of Glastonburyshire pumped up the good ship whilst I, First Mate and second oarswoman, Rookinella, looked on with a worried stare.