# Houghton grange



## Mikeymutt (Dec 20, 2015)

Houghton grange is a poultry research centre.opened in 1949 for testing on chickens and other poultry.and after looking around this place God knows what else was tested here.the site shut down in the eighties.and the site has been up for sale for quite a few years.the site is massive and situated over one hundred acres.there are labs everywhere.the place is in a lovely state of decay.with no vandalism at all what I could see.big thanks to rubex for showing me around her favourite local haunt.see her more in depth and fantastic report here

http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/misc-sites/31970-poultry-research-station.html


The main grange house which the research centre is built around.there are labs extended either side of the manor.




We headed straight to lab x this place is fairly dark.well it's pitch black in most places.i have been a lot of places.but this place give me the strangest feeling yet.who knows what went on here.big solid doors.massive lab rooms.a bit much for chickens I think.

























The ventilation room above lab x.this stretched a long way..




It was time to hit some of the outside labs













Some large freezer.i wonder what was stored in here













A sink especially for mr smiler 




A very derpy sink.










It was to cross from the main site to the the sub site over the way.this was the only place I saw graffiti.it was also the most decayed of the site too.maybe because of its isolation from the main site

A ventilation system in the main building.i guess this stretched across the labs situated here













One of the main derpy buildings






















An incinerator which was really nice.rubex really likes this one 




Back over to the main site.there are about six of these labs.i liked the colours in this one..




Rubex found this skull in the grass.god knows what poor animal it is.and if it's one originally from the labs




These buildings are situated near the main grange..I wonder if they might have been teaching rooms and maintenance rooms.as one was a garage with pit and work benches 










Luckily the kitchens were wide open.







I managed to gain acsess to the lab block adjoining the grange after seeing a group of youths going in so I followed them in.this bit was in a bad state of decay too.













It was now time to leave because after going in the labs we were in full view of the cameras.and I did not fancy getting nabbed by secca this late in the day.i have wanted to see the grange for a while now properly and it exceeded all my expectations.and is a top explore.


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## smiler (Dec 20, 2015)

Mikey, You've outdone yourself.


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## URBANMYTH (Dec 20, 2015)

Great set of photos mikey looks like a good day out


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## Mikeymutt (Dec 20, 2015)

smiler said:


> Mikey, You've outdone yourself.


Thank you smiler..I pit a sink photo in for you


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## Mikeymutt (Dec 20, 2015)

URBANMYTH said:


> Great set of photos mikey looks like a good day out


Thank you urbanmyth..it was a very good day.


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## smiler (Dec 20, 2015)

Mikeymutt said:


> Thank you smiler..I pit a sink photo in for you



Yeah I noticed, full of cra, nah I can't extract the urine from you this time, I enjoyed the pics too much, the first one was fantastic


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## Bones out (Dec 20, 2015)

So much to see.... Nice one, not been here for an age and only saw a tiny bit of it before I got my collar felt.


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## Mikeymutt (Dec 20, 2015)

smiler said:


> Yeah I noticed, full of cra, nah I can't extract the urine from you this time, I enjoyed the pics too much, the first one was fantastic



Aww thank you smiler.you are too kind.but it was not that sink.it was the Belfast one above it.just to the right of the door )


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## smiler (Dec 20, 2015)

Mikeymutt said:


> Aww thank you smiler.you are too kind.but it was not that sink.it was the Belfast one above it.just to the right of the door )[/QUOTE
> 
> Oops, I missed it, or what's a Belfast One? Anything like a No 2, as I said full of


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## HughieD (Dec 20, 2015)

That's one extensive site there. Great report Mikey...


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## krela (Dec 21, 2015)

That's a fantastic report Mikey, thank you.


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## Rubex (Dec 21, 2015)

Amazing photos Mikeymutt  and your album on Facebook is even better! Really enjoyed the few hours we had here, we'll have to do the bits we didn't see sometime soon!


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## Mikeymutt (Dec 21, 2015)

Rubex said:


> Amazing photos Mikeymutt  and your album on Facebook is even better! Really enjoyed the few hours we had here, we'll have to do the bits we didn't see sometime soon!


Thank you rubex  I would certainly like a revisit and finish the job properly


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## mrtoby (Dec 22, 2015)

top shelf UE Porn that.


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## jsp77 (Dec 22, 2015)

A cracking report and pics, thanks for sharing


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## flyboys90 (Dec 23, 2015)

Tremendous report and photos Mikey.


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## Dirus_Strictus (Dec 23, 2015)

A classic example of how to record 'Scientific Sites' - very well done!

quote - We headed straight to lab x this place is fairly dark.well it's pitch black in most places.i have been a lot of places.but this place give me the strangest feeling yet.who knows what went on here.big solid doors.massive lab rooms.a bit much for chickens I think. - quote

Sorry; but there is, and never was anything sinister about this place. At the end of WW2 it was realised that unless drastic steps were taken, there were going to be problems with meeting our ever growing demands for certain types of food. No matter what one's thoughts are on intensive rearing of livestock now a days, back then it appeared to be the total solution. Anybody who keeps up to date on happenings in China and Asia will have some intimation of how serious avian and livestock viruses can be to mankind. Back then you had whole units of 1000's of fowl virtually succumbing overnight to unknown illnesses, and this place and others like it in the UK were built to isolate the viruses and study them. You do not study deadly viruses in crowded conditions, nor do you let Joe Public wander in or out unannounced. Just as important, you cannot let laboratory staff go walking around the building without segregation/containment measures. Have no doubts that the viruses are deadly to mankind - they were back then when very little was known about them, and still are today when the over use of veterinary drugs has perhaps made intensive rearing even more problematic. The appearance of a deadly mutation in one of these intensive breeding units is just as worrying today as it was in those days when these secure labs were built. If you think these measures were over the top when we knew very little about these viruses, you should see the containment measures used today when we have gained a little more insight and knowledge of these deadly pathogens!


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## Mikeymutt (Dec 23, 2015)

Dirus_Strictus said:


> A classic example of how to record 'Scientific Sites' - very well done!
> 
> quote - We headed straight to lab x this place is fairly dark.well it's pitch black in most places.i have been a lot of places.but this place give me the strangest feeling yet.who knows what went on here.big solid doors.massive lab rooms.a bit much for chickens I think. - quote
> 
> Sorry; but there is, and never was anything sinister about this place. At the end of WW2 it was realised that unless drastic steps were taken, there were going to be problems with meeting our ever growing demands for certain types of food. No matter what one's thoughts are on intensive rearing of livestock now a days, back then it appeared to be the total solution. Anybody who keeps up to date on happenings in China and Asia will have some intimation of how serious avian and livestock viruses can be to mankind. Back then you had whole units of 1000's of fowl virtually succumbing overnight to unknown illnesses, and this place and others like it in the UK were built to isolate the viruses and study them. You do not study deadly viruses in crowded conditions, nor do you let Joe Public wander in or out unannounced. Just as important, you cannot let laboratory staff go walking around the building without segregation/containment measures. Have no doubts that the viruses are deadly to mankind - they were back then when very little was known about them, and still are today when the over use of veterinary drugs has perhaps made intensive rearing even more problematic. The appearance of a deadly mutation in one of these intensive breeding units is just as worrying today as it was in those days when these secure labs were built. If you think these measures were over the top when we knew very little about these viruses, you should see the containment measures used today when we have gained a little more insight and knowledge of these deadly pathogens!



Thank you ds..and thank you for that great insight.although you have dashed my hopes a bit ha ha.i thought they might have been doing some sort of early genetic experiment here.or breeding chickens with humans to make some sort of super chicken-human. but seriously I can imagine with the advances with research into livestock diseases there are far more stringent control.i think mass farming in not just animals but crops is a disaster for us.but people want cheap food and with a massive rise in population.what can you do.its a vicious circle really.and most illness and diseases in humans now is a 21st century problem due to intensive farming.


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## krela (Dec 23, 2015)

About those "advances", we still know hardly anything about viruses and how they act, we only really know how to recognise a few of them, and have a handful of drugs that may or may not combat them to varying levels, most of which were found by accident rather than any real research/development. Viruses are still largely an enigma to us. For all it's efforts, the medical world, and the pharmaceutical world in particular know a lot less than it would like us to believe. Even now, much of medical science describes rather than understands what's going on.  

DS is right though, and much of the research would be into developing / testing antibiotics and effective vaccines to prevent livestock mortality and increase productivity, as great as the idea of a real Foghorn Leghorn is.


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## The Wombat (Dec 23, 2015)

I really enjoyed this report - you saw so much more than we did. A return visit in order.

Thanks to DS & Krela for further reading


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## TheNarrator (Dec 24, 2015)

I was fascinated when I saw Rubex's report of this place and now this has added to my interest! Great pictures

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk


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## ExploringwithAKE (Jan 1, 2016)

Awesome report, We've been wanting to hit up this place for a while but the intense amount of security notices layered about if keep putting us off. Will definitely have to check this out though since its local to us!


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