Fails of the Urban Explorer: The Big Piles of Bricks

So here we go with another round of failed attempts at getting into places.

It's always a disappointment when one can't access somewhere for any number of reasons, and even more so when you know for certain that you will NEVER gain access, never ever!

Here are a few examples of these together with stories of the worst kinds of failure. Demolished is final, there is no going back and all you can see are the bricks.

WH Shaw & Son Ltd

This is quite a famous Urbex and amongst others, @grindle has been and documented it in the past. Only 2 weeks ago, WH Shaw & Son Ltd was on our hit-list and first on our long list of places to go.

Finding it was easy enough and I had taken the time to figure out the best way of gaining access.

On arriving I could see little point in any subterfuge and @dizzydiscovery was already at the entrance of the gates taking a few snaps at what was left.

Edging forward we engaged in conversation with an old wild-haired bloke who allegedly lives and is employed by the site to scare off would-be explorers.

'What do you lot want', he said in a rough agitated voice.

We did the usual explaining which calmed WildHair down somewhat. I left @dizzydiscovery to do the talking; he's better at it than me.

’8 fucking years I have been here, 8 FUCKING YEARS’, complained WildHair, a hint of both anguish and torment in his voice.

‘You can’t go in there, the foreman’s a right bastard’, he continued, hair blowing wildly in the wind.

…'I know it's lockdown but I don't think his hair had been cut for 8 years either'...

We had to content ourselves with a couple of pictures of the main building which is going to be saved. The rest of the site was already flattened.

If his job was to keep out Urban Explorers, then he had not been doing it very well, right @grindle?

Meltham Dyeworks

I wasn't expecting much from Meltham Dyeworks. The last image I saw was a hulking shell of a bygone age. There was also some info that it had been sold to a private investor and was about to be renovated.

On arriving we found a large pile of bricks. The Dyeworks was supposed to be a Grade listed building, that is, it can’t be demolished.

The info I got was hearsay so I can’t verify it. Has someone broken the law? In any case, this was a resounding failure of the worst kind.

We traipsed through some woods looking for the Dyeworks not believing someone had demolished this old piece of history to no avail.

A lot of camera's were posted around these bricks. They don't want anyone rummaging around and we were consigned to the trees.

Metham Dyeworks and its legacy are gone forever. We were too late to capture it and preserve what was once history.

Storthes Hall Mental Hospital

There is little left of the once former Lunatic Asylum, and looking at the video of another explorer I wasn't expecting access. He was lucky and though the grounds were full of vehicles there were no humans present.

Storthes Hall is being renovated and much of it has been demolished save the massive hall which is very impressive looking.

...'waiting for SlothSecurity caused us both to grow unwanted beards, I had to order a beard trimmer to remove the unwanted hair'...

On arrival, we could see work was being done to it. I have noticed during lockdown many old places are being worked on. It's good in one sense but bad for us who want to go and be nosey.

@dizzydiscovery hailed the security guard who took around half an hour to lazily walk to the fence where we were standing. I personally think he was part sloth and was some kind of hybrid human.

It was the usual case of 'you cant come in', but he wasn't unfriendly once he figured out our true intentions. His suggestion of taking photographs from 'just up the road' was not very helpful.

A massive zoom lens would have been, we were that far away from the old hospital. He walked back to the hospital taking two steps forward and one step back. It must be a boring job.

This is another one to cross off the list. If it’s being renovated, then it's all for the better. At least it’s not going to be fully demolished and lost.

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