Sick Britain

This was a classic Sunday afternoon “what shall I do?” moment, quite why I ended up deciding to do three and a half hour’s driving to explore a tiny Cold War Nuclear Bunker in Wiltshire I don’t know but that’s the thing about Urban Exploration – it piques your interest just enough to make you do crazy things. Before visiting the Alderbury ROC I knew very little of it’s history, I’ve since done some research (mainly on Wikipedia) and it’s quite an interesting piece of history I’d never heard.

The Royal Observer Corps were in existence from 1925 to 1995 and their first significant operation was to act as aircraft spotters in WW2 where their task was to radio in any sightings of enemy aircraft or flying bombs. After the war ended they were briefly stood down after being in continuous operation from September 1939 to May 1945 then as the peace transitioned into the Cold War their role changed. The new role was to report nuclear explosions and monitor the nuclear fallout, to do this the crew of three would have to be prepared to spend up to 21 days underground in a 16ft x 7ft x 7ft bunker, between 1958 and 1968 over 1,500 of these bunkers were built across the country.

On arrival at the site I had to straddle a barbed-wire fence and then found the hatch easily, it was weighted down by a large flint boulder and the hatch opened easily once it was removed. Having never been to an ROC post before I felt a little apprehensive as I looked down the pitch black hatch, 20ft above a dark and slightly watery looking floor – anything could’ve been down there. I strapped on my head torch and proceeded downwards and I was surprised to see how small these bunkers were. Having been down there for just a few minutes I heard voices approaching, I stayed quiet for a brief time to gauge who the people were and what they might be doing. I was somewhat paranoid of being locked down there by the landowner or some random miscreants so before they reached the hatch I yelled out “HELLO?”, this startled the new visitors briefly and then they hung their heads over to see what was going on. It turned out that they were fellow explorers like me and they seemed like a nice friendly pair and it was nice to meet them both.

The bunker itself was surprisingly small and contained a pair of bunk-beds, a couple of cupboards, a crate and quite a few pieces of paperwork and documentation including fallout charts, instructions, aircraft identification diagrams and so on. This particular bunker was in pretty good condition, I gather from Googling around that many are not quite this neat and tidy, this one was apparently used by the BBC at some point in the recent past.

Having been down there for probably 10 minutes or so I decided to pop back up (as did my fellow explorers) and call it a day. It took us a few minutes to figure out how to shut the hatch (don’t force it, there’s a bar you need to shift and then it works) and then I replaced the boulder and headed back to the car.

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After exploring Ankle Hill Hospital in Melton Mowbray I needed to find something bigger and somewhere I could definitely explore completely, as luck had it some quick Googling turned up Comrade Thompski’s Flickr set taken at Lisk Industrial Controls which was helpfully geotagged to guide us to the location. Being Winter the light was already fading by the time I arrived but there was enough light to be going on with and I had my trusty Maglite in tow anyway (wouldn’t go urbexing without it!). The first thing I saw on entry was this bizarre barrel of Green Goo, it didn’t look so bizarre until you put a flash through it and then the colour just goes mental, at best estimate it’s some kind of anti-freeze but I’m not ruling out something more disturbing or sinister! The surrounding area (and much of the site) consists of a series of giant sheds, mostly brick built with corrugated iron roofing, and mostly empty.

The more interesting part from my perspective was some of the switchgear and electronics to be found around the place, I love engineering related bits and bobs and they really give a place atmosphere. Lisk was full of switches, start/stop buttons, gauges, dials, signs, wiring, fuseboxes and all sorts of stuff like that so I was in my element. I didn’t touch too much of it very closely and I’m always wearing gloves so I don’t know whether there’s a risk that some of it is still live though I very much doubt it, the place has been empty for quite I while I expect although not too long since it doesn’t show many classic signs of decay and dereliction.

The back of the complex (probably the bit nearest the road) seemed to be a set of offices with much smaller rooms, carpeted floors and some leftover furniture and other debris. One of the more noteworthy bits of electronic debris was the chassis and main boards of their old Goldstar PBX / phone system, there were several cards laying around and none of them seemed to show signs of massive damage so they might even be usable if you know what you’re doing. Other noteworthy bits and pieces include some strange hexagonal tubs (or perhaps up-ended plinths) made out of MDF and painted green. I suspect that these were either some kind of packaging in which Lisk products were shipped (they seemed to have address labels on them) or some kind of trade stand as there was another giant wooden structure in the same room.

By the time I’d finished exploring the light had really faded outside, making the torch an essential and every shot required the sort of power provided only by an external flash unit (I have a Speedlite 580EXII) – so much so that had to change the batteries whilst on site. It’s well worth noting that after exploring there’s a Marstons pub almost exactly opposite the abandoned Lisk building, the pub does great food (the goat’s cheese ravioli was superb) and seems to have a perpetual 2-for-1 offer on main courses which is pretty sweet in this day and age.

Click the following link to Flickr for a few other pics taken on the day.

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Having decided to do some Urbex in Leicestershire I headed over to the Ankle Hill War Memorial Hospital in Melton Mowbray. Access was pretty straightforward but I did get a few scrapes from the brambles in the adjacent rough patch of land and managed to lose my torch in the rough, once on-site you can see the main hospital building which is a fairly old grand structure (the sort that could’ve been a stately home) and have complete access to the rest of the site. I encountered no security to speak of and only one security camera seemed evident though I expect that it was part of the original hospital and not erected to secure the ruins, it point directly across a doorway which would seem to support that theory as well.

The main problem I encountered here in terms of exploring was that the place is pretty well boarded up, padlocked and sealed and I’m not the type that would force entry or break anything but the exterior is well worth a wander around and you can see a bunch of interesting bits and bobs through the windows.

Despite the lack of access I think that it’s still a good site for a quick wander, the building itself is quite interesting an there’s an array of outbuildings, a fire escape, some archways and an overgrown area that are worth having a nose around. I think that because it’s well sealed the place appears to be in quite a good condition internally and whilst there was evidence of vandals having broken the odd window and having been in one of the courtyards the view through the windows is that of an abandoned but not really decayed building.

Around the site there’s quite a bit of graffiti, much of it seeming to mention “Drunk Irish” (presumably a local) and phrases such as “Prostitute Mutilation”, “Slaughter the Priest Corpse” and the pictured “Painful Stab Wounds Heal My Soul, I Beg For Mercy”. Lovely. I do generally appreciate artistic graffiti but Ankle Hill seemed to be much more ASBO than Turner Prize so I wouldn’t be looking for the next Banksy to come out of Melton Mowbray any time soon.

In summary: worth a visit, but don’t make it your main goal for the day.

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A few weeks ago I made it out to Stewartby Brickworks in Bedfordshire, from what I can gather it closed it’s doors in February 2008 but having read the post on derelicte.co.uk it sounds as though it had been running at a limited capacity for a good few years before that. I was looking forward to exploring an industrial unit but my heart sank a little as I drove up towards the village as I saw bulldozers around the perimeter, thankfully when I got around the back of the village they appeared quite far away and may not be part of the brickworks at all.

Once on the site I had a look around and started taking photos in one of the nearby sheds when I heard some noise, in the distance I saw a van moving and it eventually drove right past me on the other side of a wall. Other than that and the bulldozery in the distance I didn’t detect any other presence on the site but out of caution I didn’t explore some of the sheds in the direction the van came from.

Despite having not been abandoned for long the site is in a relatively good condition, there’s a lot of rubble around and dust in the air but not much evidence of mould, graffiti or vandalism – quite a refreshing change from most places! The structures seem to be intact and pretty sturdy (I wouldn’t try climbing though), there were some noticeboards that still had A4 paper pinned to it in fairly good condition (notes about the lay-offs) and dotted around the site were some interesting ‘motivational’ signs with slogans such as “QUALITY IS YOUR ONLY FUTURE” or “THINK QUALITY, IT TAKES JUST AS MUCH EFFORT TO MAKE A BAD BRICK”.

I’ve never worked in that sort of industrial assembly-line environment but I can’t imagine those signs really had much of an impact. Other paperwork and non-English language newspapers around the site seemed to point to a largely migrant workforce and there were even some photos taped on the walls showing what I assume were former employees stacking bricks.

Elsewhere around the site there was a good mix of giant sheds and nice close detail to photograph, overall a pretty cool site. If I hadn’t seen activity on the site I’d have been able to stay a little longer but as it happened I had other places to go but I imagine that I’ll return at some point.

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Some people come to Urbex with a background in photography whilst others come just for the exploration and end up taking photos casually and it’s hard to write up some tips that’ll help both sets of explorers so I’ll start by giving some general tips and maybe later on I’ll put up some separate posts for those of us with SLRs (or with Point & Shoot cameras that offer manual controls). 

1. Control Your Flash.
   Most Point & Shoot cameras tend to have the flash in an ‘Auto’ mode, if you’re going to achieve good results you’ll want to turn this off and make a deliberate decision about when to use the flash.  If you’re outdoors in bright conditions then I wouldn’t bother unless there’s something in the foreground you want to light up.  If you’re in a dark room (and doing Urbex you will be at some point) then you’ll probably want to turn it on.  The upside of controlling the flash manually is that you can try different scenes with and without the flash and see what works best.  Another mini-tip is that if your flash tends to come out too bright, cover 25-50% of it with your finger as you take the photo and it’ll calm down the brightness (at the expense of a slight red tint).
2. Steady the Camera.
   Keeping the camera steady will reduce the amount of blur in the photo, especially when the camera is struggling with low-light environments.  If you have a tripod you’re welcome to use it but I often find it to be a bit of a burden in an urbex environment, there are a couple of alternatives that will achieve the same effect (stability) but without the hassle.  Check out the Joby Gorillapod, it’s a small plastic tripod that can be free-standing or bent to secure your camera around fence posts, railings, furniture, etc.
   Another similar idea (but for flat surfaces only) is a to use a bean-bag, this will also have the effect of steadying your camera against vibrations.  If you don’t want to go out and spend money one good tip is to use the timer on your camera, when you press the button to take a photo you move the camera slightly but if you set the shot up and put the camera on a 5/10 second time you won’t have to worry about vibrations.  Another tip to reduce camera shake is to butt your elbows into your chest or to leaning against a wall or other structure (be VERY careful doing this in a derelict building).
3. Take a Torch.
   In low light environments your camera may struggle to focus on the objects in front of it.  A good tip is to take a torch and point it at your subject, set the shot up to get the focus (usually this means keeping the button half-pressed), turn of the torch and take the shot.  If you’re using a flash then the light from that will take over and if you’re using a long exposure then you will avoid having the torch light in the scene.

I hope that helps to get you started, if you do happen to be an SLR user you can check out my more general SLR Tips over on my personal blog at www.thirtyfootscrew.com.

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