# Water Eaton Grain Silo - August 2008



## ukmayhem (Aug 25, 2008)

Me and a couple of friends tackled this tonight as we've lived next to it our whole life and drive past it everyday and never ventured in to have a look. We spent around 3 hours here most of it on the roof waiting for it to get dark. A warning of the site if your scared of pigeons stay away theres hundeds of the flying rats and they love to jump out at you when you least expect it.
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Some brief history *( taken from Google )

The Silo was built by the Government in 1940 as a WW2 grain buffer. There's a rail head next to it, so its makes sense that the place might just have been a collection point for harvested or imported grain. It gets unloaded and dried before its blown into the top of the silos. It was still in use until the late 1980's, but today its full of junk outside, a pet supplies company uses some of it and a company stores Vans and skips. There seems to be a number of these concrete grain silos around the country. From what I can asceratin so far, it seems some were built during WW2 and others, such as Haughley Silo in Suffolk, was built post war, during the period of the Korean War, to store Canadian grain in the event of the then much feared Atlantic blockade. Interestingly Haughley Silo is situated on a rail head, would like to know whether others around the country in isolated positions are also on rail heads. I would be very interested if anyone out there can enlarge upon what I have found so far.
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The Future*

Grundon Waste Management has submitted a plan to Oxfordshire County Council, which is responsible for waste management to build a waste recovery plant on the Site. This would see a giant new building replace the 1940s grain silo alongside the A34 and the Oxford-Bicester railway line at Water Eaton. Up to 150,000 tonnes of waste a year - including aluminium and steel, paper, cardboard, plastic, glass and wood - would be processed at the site next to the Water Eaton park-and-ride centre. The silo would be demolished to make way for a main building, waste reception area, storage containers and a car park. The site would be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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A Selection of Pictures i took*







































































































Matt


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## Exploretime (Aug 25, 2008)

Nice, love what uve done with the last picture of the car park, cool.


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## ukmayhem (Aug 25, 2008)

Dumptyboy said:


> Nice, love what uve done with the last picture of the car park, cool.



Thanks i just played around with the exposer it was my first time and am very happy with some of the Results ( even though there were quite alot of bad ones  ) Was really hard as it was very windy up there and was rocking the tripod. I'm still learning my camera skills 

Heres afew more


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## thompski (Aug 26, 2008)

That place looks great, lots of bits lying around still and some good rooftop views to boot. Good stuff


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## ukmayhem (Aug 26, 2008)

thompski said:


> That place looks great, lots of bits lying around still and some good rooftop views to boot. Good stuff



Cheers Mate


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## Foxylady (Aug 26, 2008)

Excellent stuff, ukm. Unusual looking building and some great things still inside. Love that lift door and the 'naughty chair' in the corner.


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## ukmayhem (Aug 27, 2008)

Foxylady said:


> Excellent stuff, ukm. Unusual looking building and some great things still inside. Love that lift door and the 'naughty chair' in the corner.



Cheers Foxy that chair is quite Famous as everyone who does an explore takes a pic of it but its always in a different place whooooooo spooky


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## owlet (Oct 31, 2008)

oh! this is great to see. i live really near this site and have been meaning to explore it for years. it's awesome to know it can be done. nice photos also


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## ukmayhem (Nov 1, 2008)

thanks i plan to return to take some better pictures feel free to tag along


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## Mr Sam (Nov 1, 2008)

nice stuff wouldnt mind seeing a grain silo


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## owlet (Nov 1, 2008)

ukmayhem said:


> thanks i plan to return to take some better pictures feel free to tag along



neat. let me know when you plan to do a re-visit


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## owlet (Nov 3, 2008)

i read today in the kidlington news that there are possible plans to turn this site into a train station! if this happened the site could become one whole lot more secure if not removed. just thought i'd inform everyone. if you're planning to explore here, it may be best to visit whilst you can.


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## ukmayhem (Nov 4, 2008)

owlet said:


> i read today in the kidlington news that there are possible plans to turn this site into a train station! if this happened the site could become one whole lot more secure if not removed. just thought i'd inform everyone. if you're planning to explore here, it may be best to visit whilst you can.



Yet another possible use for the site, they'll make there minds up soon


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## LiamCH (Nov 4, 2008)

It looks in really good condition. The equipment isn't rusty, which is quite unusual.


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## owlet (Nov 4, 2008)

ukmayhem said:


> Yet another possible use for the site, they'll make there minds up soon



looks like they have now  and it doesn't look good:-

http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=7800


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## ukmayhem (Nov 5, 2008)

owlet said:


> looks like they have now  and it doesn't look good:-
> 
> http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=7800



Really Gutted


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