# RN Cordite factory Holton heath- May 09 (picture heavy)



## Newage (May 16, 2009)

Hi All

Well the travelling Newage & Fluffy (AKA Cockney boy)millitary site tours continues. This time off to sunny Dorset to vist the former Royal naval Cordite factory at Holton Heath so with the trusty 4X4 full of maps,
coffee and the sound of more AC/DC oh and as a special treat for Cockney boy 1 packet of Rainbow drops, well that's the food and drink sorted. Off we set form Oxfordshire to Dorcet about 2 hours.

Fluffy got the heads up on how to get in and his contact was spot on.

Holton heath was built to make Cordite for the RN during the first world war, the site was chosen in 1914.
As with any explosive factory it's away form populated areas and alll the building are sunken in to the grond or are under ground.

To make Cordite the process needs some nasty chemicals like concentrated Nitric acid, concentrated Sulphuric acid, Actone, Nitrocellulose, and the wonderfully safe Nitroglycerin all of which was made on the site, the process also needs vast amounts of water.

The Holton heath site is BIG (no not just BIG it's "E-F****** normus") we spent 7 hours in there and only saw about 1/3 of it. Most of the site has not been Chaved because the site is over grown, covered in Gorse and brambles and the Ants OMG the Ants......

The first building you get to is the boiler house







Then on to a large building it looks like a mess building with showers and an out side blast wall with loop hole built in to it.









There are blast shelter all over the place, and they are big most are doubles.as you can see from the picture on the left they are oval shaped.









After these we made our way across the site to the reservoir, we came in from the back and it was a nightmare to get up the hill and through the gorse and brambles but when you see the place WOW.
The building on the right is the valve room and gives access to the under ground reservoir. 

















Just had to try and use Fluffy's LASER pointer for some thing a little different. I thinks you can just read that it says NEWAGE.

Some of the larger building are very well hidden in the trees. But we did come across this, it's building P17









Next was building P4, which was a press building and control center.

















After walking round and looking at many more under ground buildings we headed off to try and find the "fire watchers tower" Now that I've done some more research it's actually 
called the control trench OP1.

You are just going to love this, oh baby.

This is the view from the top and the picture on the right is from inside the pixie house.









You just know you want to know whats down that ladder....

Well.......









These is an entrance at ground level, so you don't have to go down the ladder of DOOM!!!!!

Here are a few more pictures from around the site, they are in no type of order so enjoy.



















Well that's about it for now, well done if you got this far, sorry for all the pictures but the site is so big putting up 2 or 3 just does not do the place justice. as usual there are plenty more on my FlickR page at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/newage2/sets/72157618094995904/

Any comments are most welcome
Cheers Newage and Fluffy


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## DigitalNoise (May 16, 2009)

Man, this place looks awesome, nice pics mate. The pixie pillbox goes underground?!! Wow! I gotta get myself down there! Im in bournemouth next weekend, if anybody has any ideas how I can ditch the mrs, (that don't involve a rope and concrete block) let me know!!


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## klempner69 (May 16, 2009)

Digital Noise,just send the missus shopping with your credit card..sorted.Mr Newage,I love this report and the way you write it..quite funny at times.Love those shelters.I have never heard of this place ,but now I am going wiki-ing.Many thanx for this one fella.


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## bonecollector (May 16, 2009)

Nice photos.
I must admit this is one of my favorite sites as you tend to find something new every time you visit.
Shame about all the big ants and ticks though.


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## marticus (May 16, 2009)

greatly presented and some stunning pics.... love it


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## jonney (May 16, 2009)

Awesome report. I love the fact that so much remains especially the control trench. Nice one


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## littlelaura (May 16, 2009)

Lovely site, looks like a good day out ! 
Really want to live in that house with the round pointed roof !  Looks so sweet. Good report, well done.x


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## BenCooper (May 16, 2009)

Interesting stuff - was the underground reservoir for water, or was it diesel? Other ordnance factories I've visited have had underground diesel tanks.

That tiling is amazing as well - I've never seen that before...


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## night crawler (May 16, 2009)

I can gess what Fluffy is doing in the last one, taking a leak Great find.


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## borntobemild (May 16, 2009)

that place looks fantastic.Always wanted to go there.

There's some nice pictures of the site when it was operational here.

http://www.corfe-castle.demon.co.uk/hhin.html


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## Foxylady (May 17, 2009)

Newage said:


> ...as a special treat for Cockney boy 1 packet of Rainbow drops...



You can still buy those? Love them but haven't seen them for ages! 
Brilliant site! So many amazing things remaining. Didn't realise where it was until BTBM posted the link (ta, mate.  ). A visit to Corfe Castle is on the cards at some point so if doable, I must get to see this site too.
Cheers.


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## Newage (May 17, 2009)

HI Guys and Gals

Thanks for the comments, the site is so big that if you do go you will need to spend all day there.

As for the reservoir, it was for water and the main pumping house is some miles away form the site.
It is split in two parts, the pictures that I took are from the left side as you look at the valve room.

In the right hand side part the pillars are brick although they may be concrete with a brick outer skin.
When you look on Google earth the reservoir is the only visible part of the site, it is that overgrown.

Oh and Foxy you can still get Rainbow drops in our local CO-OP.

Cheers Newage


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## Newage (May 17, 2009)

*Site plan*

Hi All

Fluffy sent me this site plan, thought you all might like to see just how big the site was and still is.






Go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/newage2/

and have a look at the full size picture BTW it's big.

Cheers Newage


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## Badoosh (May 17, 2009)

Fantastic site guys, well done on the report & pics. I'm loving the pixie type shelter, quietly disguising what lies inside, awesome!


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## LiamCH (May 17, 2009)

Normally these sort of sites don't really interest me, as they're just a lot of empty shells, but this looks incredible. There's so much to see, and I love those fascinating ladders and other nooks and crannies. Is there underground stuff too? I'd like to see this myself...


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## fire*fly (May 17, 2009)

It's funny, I was talking about this with my son yesterday...it's so close to me & I've never been, I didn't realise it was so big myself. great pictures


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## Lightbuoy (May 17, 2009)

Fan-dabby-dozy!

What a varied and interesting set of buildings & structures! 

Loving all that glazed brickwork, the underground reservior, and that round pill box 

Thanks for sharing!


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## fluffy5518 (May 17, 2009)

Just to follow on from what Newage has already said,this place is amazing !!!! We spent seven hours in there and it was bloody hard work.i think i can easily say that this was the most physically demanding explore i have ever done (alright neither me nor him are proverbial spring chickens)BUT we were both absolutely knackered by the time we escaped !! The main prob is that all the buildings-as newage says- are in low lying areas and most have large blast mounds around them so every explore involves a near vertical scramble up and the a near vertical scramble down.This has got to be done on your feet,there is no copping out by sliding down on your arse cos when you see the ants that inhabit this place in their zillions believe me the last thing you want is to get these babies anywhere near you --let alone in your pants. !!!
All in all an absolutely amazing day out !! And if you like glazed bricks you'll love this place -there everywhere-and in superb condition !!
PS; Big respect goes to Bonecollector for the gen !!!
Here's a few more phots;
1.The ballcock and a half for LHS underground reservoir




2.Shiney tiled bricks.




3.Site location marker-presumably these were all over the site identifying every location,but this was the only one we found !!




4.Entrance to a covered tiled buiding.




5.Test date---retest now due !!




6.Underground tunnel intersection.




7.Water pump rooms ? Shrouded with a blast wall.





Oh by the way Newage may have shown me the said packet of Rainbow Drops (Drool Drool)
BUT he never offered me any !!!!!


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## Foxylady (May 17, 2009)

fluffy5518 said:


> Oh by the way Newage may have shown me the said packet of Rainbow Drops (Drool Drool)
> BUT he never offered me any !!!!!



Now that was just cruel!!! 
Enjoyed your photos, Fluffy.


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## Evilgenius (May 17, 2009)

Top report!

We have been down there so many times i have lost count (its only 5 mins up the road) and thought we had seen 99.9% of it but have not come across the building P17, looks great, might have to try and find it sometime this week! Have not had a map so its just hunt around!

Also well done on the reservoir pics, the amount of dark photos i have of that place because i have found it quite hard to get a picture that shows the size of it! Hats off to you!


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## the_historian (May 19, 2009)

wow. I spent years holidaying in Dorset when I was a kid and never saw half of these places.


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## Evilgenius (May 19, 2009)

Well hidden mate thats why! Will be going down there again very soon, still so much to see!


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## Mitch (May 26, 2009)

been here today and realised the sheer scales of the place. Thanks for the great report but is there anychance you could tell me where the white tiled rooms are in relation to any of the other things...i found most of the places and even had a look around the woods across the main road and theres loads of knocked down building behind mounds in there too. i will print that map/ground plan you put up and visit again soon

cheers again newage


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## Newage (May 27, 2009)

The big building P17 if you look at the large site plan is is south (going towards the industrial estate) from the control trench.

Cheers Newage


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## Evilgenius (May 27, 2009)

Also on our last visit we found P18 which is just NE of P17, same layout but alot more water in there though.

(sorry about the blured pic but its the only one i had and its great to find the old sign posts still laying around)


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## Mitch (May 28, 2009)

does anyone know if the estate immediatley south by the train track is accessable?


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## Evilgenius (May 28, 2009)

Mitch said:


> does anyone know if the estate immediatley south by the train track is accessable?



It is but i dont think there is much over there, we only found one chaved up building when we went (C02).


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## Newage (May 29, 2009)

Wow P18 looks the biz, we missed that one, the site is so over grown it hard to see more than 20 meters at times, will go back soon.

Cheers Newage


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## bonecollector (May 29, 2009)

Shame about the smell in P18.
I dont know what it is but it bloody stinks in there.


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## sam1990 (Jun 1, 2009)

I'm glad that someone has gone in there to show us whats there. about half of the site has had the holton heath trading park built upon it, but as the photos show, there is still lots there. the site is quite close to sea level, so i'm surpurised that there isn't more flooding in the underground areas!

Just found some old pittures online:

http://www.corfe-castle.demon.co.uk/hh/

The land was originally owned by the Lees family, who owned the nearby estate. The land was used as a private steeplechase course until it was sold to the Navy. They lived in South Lytchet Manor, and still own the estate including Holton Lee which is next door to the factory. I've just finished writing a book about South Lytchet Manor, which now houses The Lytchett Minster School. (If anyone is interested in having a read the please PM or Email me  )


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## BenHudsonEsq (Jul 29, 2009)

Hi  I was going to PM the OP about this, but I can't seem to find the button... I've never used a BB system like this one before. Perhaps its 'cos I haven't got enough posts to PM yet.

Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for a great report. I know what I'm doing after my holiday  I've been to HH before, but thought the main site had been totally overtaken by the trading park; to see that a great deal of it is still there is fantastic. 

All I could find when I visited (it's more effort to whizz around the perimeter looking for things when you're on a bike) was a small set of buildings on the left hand side of the road (St. Martin's Hill) going up from the station, just past the line of houses. I can't quite pick it out on the big site plan (which, incidentally is the best thing I've seen all week - how did I not come across it before?! I was going by google earth, which isn't ideal). The grid ref of the little bit I was exploring is SY942906. My pictures from the trip are on my DA - benhudsonesq.deviantart.com. I would post them here, but it's not my thread and some people get annoyed by that sort of thing.

I know I'm not supposed to talk about access, but if you want to expand your exploration to that part of the site (there's a really nice lab - see my pics) and can't find your way in, drop me a line at [email protected]. It's easy, but tricky if you catch my drift.

Further to that, there are a few interesting things on the road back to Poole - a derelict antique shop that I couldn't find a way to even get near too (see http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=4858&highlight=holton+heaththen some really derelict buildings of unknown age and purpose. They're on the right hand side as you carry along
down the road with the warehouse on your left. I haven't uploaded any of those photos 'cos I only tend to bother with the artistic ones, and there isn't really much to look at.

Ben


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