I am self employed which means I can pretty much do what the heck I like and yesterday afternoon I decided I'd had enough of working and it was time for a little urban exploration. So I messaged @inksurgeon and suggested we go out to play!
The first intended location was an ex RAF base full of abandoned tractors and plant machinery. The farmer who owns the land is renowned for being aggressive with urban explorers and it was just our bloody luck as we arrived that the farmer was stacking his hay bales. We could have made a stealthy entrance through adjacent woods but @inksurgeon wanted to fly his drone like a lunatic as usual and he would be guaranteed to draw the attention of the angry farmer!
So off we went to a plan "B" location in the form of a steelworks in Derbyshire. I try to follow the unofficial urbex code of not revealing the location and steelworks in Derbyshire is all I will say! (To any urban explorer worth his salt that would be enough information to figure it out!)
I had been to the steelworks before but hadn't been able to find a way in. I was too knackered at the time to keep walking around the site to find a way. So this time we walked right to the place where I hadn't checked and we nailed it!
After an undignified climb over a 7 foot high steel plate wall, I adjusted my clothing and pulled out my camera!
Nailed it!
@inksurgeon celebrating getting in!
Huge!
Almost as soon as we got inside I immediately regretted not bringing a damn tripod. There were a lot of holes letting in light and that's usually enough to work with handheld but this place was quite dark!
I shot a panorama with my iPhone:
The Stairs to Nowhere
The whole steelworks was in a serious state of dereliction. These stairs leading to nowhere were hanging on for dear life.
Many levels of grime
I made a mental note to myself that if we managed to get back in here, I'd need to bring some gloves. Everything and every surface was covered in unmentionable crap!
There were visitors?
Apparently they let people in the steelworks to view their work. That would have been great to see!
Switches everywhere
Off to the sides of the main building were various small rooms full of switchgear. Completely pitch black inside and with no tripod or lights, I managed to bag this using the light on my phone in one hand and camera in the other!
Booth
This was once someone's office. Swinging over the top of the factory moving hot stuff all over the place! And surprisingly it really did swing; this thing was rocking. Literally.
The booth was attached to some pretty seriously heavy duty lifting gear.
Terminator factory
As the booth would move into the roof space, this was where it would enter. I couldn't work out whether the lifting gear and attached booth would traverse around the top as there didn't look to be enough room. Either way the whole building would make a great movie set for the next Terminator!
Looking up at the wheel:
Don't jump
On the first floors there were little to no barriers to prevent certain death. As with all urbex, tread carefully!
Miles and miles of building
The steelworks was huge. It seemed to go on forever. This was just another part with a natural vignette.
The consequences of urban exploration
As we left the site, we emerged covered in crap to a decent looking sunset. Everything was grimey.
Covered in grime like this also made it difficult to deny having been inside when we were tackled by a pair of security guards in a van!
As we were nearly off site, I spotted the van and we got a shimmy on and walked a bit faster to avoid a potential confrontation. I didn't think the van would be able to access where we were walking off road but low and behold the van made it. Bugger.
Anyways, the two security guards were older gentlemen who didn't give a rat's ass whether we had been in or not. We then had a pleasant conversation about whether Notts County would ever get back in the Premier League and a discussion about overpaid footballers!
About me:
I usually specialise in shooting lightpainting images but occasionally dabble in urbex and artistic model photography. I'm always on the lookout for someone to collaborate with; please don't hesitate to get in touch if you'd like to create art.
Social Media
https://www.facebook.com/fastchrisuk
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fastchris/
