clebby
Well-known member
After hearing about this through a friend, me and Da-Mop decided to check out this little-documented site. We cycled into the heart of the sleepy Gloucestershire countryside, and soon the various chimneys, water towers and warehouses loomed on the horizon. However, despite being surrounded by glorious counrtryside and at the heart of the pretty hamlet of Stoke Orchard, the does not stick out like a sore thumb as you would imagine. The only way to realise its derelict is to venture on to the site, or for those with a keen eye the drab, dreary and rusting corrugated walls are a giveaway.
Opened in 1950 by British Coals Jacob Brownowski, the CRE's main objective was to improve the efficiency of burning coal, whilst also trying to keep emissions down. In its later years, the CRE ventured into producing crude oil from coal, but unfortunately the process was expensive and inefficient and so never caught on. However, the method did actually produce oil and the CRE housed an experimental 1970's Ford Torino that run on this new oil. The Coal Liquefaction facilities are still located on the site, run down and derelict, and were operational until the last days of the CRE. The scientists working there obviously though they could make the process economically viable.
When the British Coal Industry was privatised in 1994, the government refused to fund the CRE, and so it closed its doors. Almost all of the site remains, with just one building being converted into a trading estate, which still houses a division of the NCB.
The first thing you stumble across when you access the site are some testing houses that were used to test and experiment with heating equipment. They look like a normal pair of 1970's semi's, until you notice the obscene number of chimneys. This is because every single room, even the garages, were equipped with fireplaces and flu's.
With so much more to see, we couldn't afford to spend much time here (and there was no sign of the Ford Torino!) So we continued to the Gasification area. When turning coal into oil, it first had to be turned into gas, all done at the CRE.
Apart from a lot of weeds and rust, the entire site is in excellent condition, especially after 14 years of abandonment. Apart from the odd broken window and a hell of a lot of pigeon crap, some areas remain untouched, as they were when the facility closed all those years ago.
In a small, normal looking store room there was an assortment of shelves that housed coal samples. On the shelves were the names of coillery's from around the country, and I don't have a clue about the coal industry but even I recognised the importance; names like Ellington and Navigation Deep. Ellington's shelf still held a few lumps of coal.
Also in this room, rather bizarrely, was a pillar drill
Seeing as pipes criss-crossed around the entire site, pressure gauges, valves and switches could be found around every corner.
The Coal Liquefaction Facilities were where the coal gas was turned into the new oil. They were unfortunately locked up tight, but I will certainly return in the future if anyone is up for it?
I peered in through one of the windows on the Coal Liquefaction Facilities. There was a complete laboratory with fume cupboards, gas taps and machines. Damn the lack of access points!
Then we discovered this warehouse; it housed the main furnaces. These even had vast conveyor belts and fodders to feed coal into the fire.
Then we reached the furnace room, housing three colossal ovens and large control panels, some of which still used paper and a needle to plot temperature graphs. These rolls of graph paper showed the furnaces reached well over 1500 degrees centigrade.
This beautiful device (I think it was a themometer) used different shaped, elagant glass baubles to plot information on a computer graph. It still had the ink pot, still full, ready to plot more information after all these years. A priceless relic, and I'm so glad it's not been vandalised.
After navigating the maze of rooms and ladders that took you to all different levels of the complex, I stumbled across this, which I had been looking forward to seeing for real after seeing it on www.forlornbritain.co.uk. It is a beautiful Hartley and Sugden sectional boiler, with an English rose cast into each door.
We then "tackled" the water tower, which is actually suprisingly high, but the highlight was the stunning views of the surrounding countryside, and out towards Cheltenham.
Obviously, with coal comes combustion, and with combustion comes fire, so the site had a 3 berth fire station. I wonder if it had those firemans poles...
I will certainly be returning in the future to check out the Coal Liquefaction Facilities, the office blocks (which also had labs; yay!) and an incredible looking store room with gas masks and glass jars filled with all sorts of things!
If you want to tag along PM me or add me on MSN at [email protected]
Opened in 1950 by British Coals Jacob Brownowski, the CRE's main objective was to improve the efficiency of burning coal, whilst also trying to keep emissions down. In its later years, the CRE ventured into producing crude oil from coal, but unfortunately the process was expensive and inefficient and so never caught on. However, the method did actually produce oil and the CRE housed an experimental 1970's Ford Torino that run on this new oil. The Coal Liquefaction facilities are still located on the site, run down and derelict, and were operational until the last days of the CRE. The scientists working there obviously though they could make the process economically viable.
When the British Coal Industry was privatised in 1994, the government refused to fund the CRE, and so it closed its doors. Almost all of the site remains, with just one building being converted into a trading estate, which still houses a division of the NCB.
The first thing you stumble across when you access the site are some testing houses that were used to test and experiment with heating equipment. They look like a normal pair of 1970's semi's, until you notice the obscene number of chimneys. This is because every single room, even the garages, were equipped with fireplaces and flu's.
With so much more to see, we couldn't afford to spend much time here (and there was no sign of the Ford Torino!) So we continued to the Gasification area. When turning coal into oil, it first had to be turned into gas, all done at the CRE.
Apart from a lot of weeds and rust, the entire site is in excellent condition, especially after 14 years of abandonment. Apart from the odd broken window and a hell of a lot of pigeon crap, some areas remain untouched, as they were when the facility closed all those years ago.
In a small, normal looking store room there was an assortment of shelves that housed coal samples. On the shelves were the names of coillery's from around the country, and I don't have a clue about the coal industry but even I recognised the importance; names like Ellington and Navigation Deep. Ellington's shelf still held a few lumps of coal.
Also in this room, rather bizarrely, was a pillar drill
Seeing as pipes criss-crossed around the entire site, pressure gauges, valves and switches could be found around every corner.
The Coal Liquefaction Facilities were where the coal gas was turned into the new oil. They were unfortunately locked up tight, but I will certainly return in the future if anyone is up for it?
I peered in through one of the windows on the Coal Liquefaction Facilities. There was a complete laboratory with fume cupboards, gas taps and machines. Damn the lack of access points!
Then we discovered this warehouse; it housed the main furnaces. These even had vast conveyor belts and fodders to feed coal into the fire.
Then we reached the furnace room, housing three colossal ovens and large control panels, some of which still used paper and a needle to plot temperature graphs. These rolls of graph paper showed the furnaces reached well over 1500 degrees centigrade.
This beautiful device (I think it was a themometer) used different shaped, elagant glass baubles to plot information on a computer graph. It still had the ink pot, still full, ready to plot more information after all these years. A priceless relic, and I'm so glad it's not been vandalised.
After navigating the maze of rooms and ladders that took you to all different levels of the complex, I stumbled across this, which I had been looking forward to seeing for real after seeing it on www.forlornbritain.co.uk. It is a beautiful Hartley and Sugden sectional boiler, with an English rose cast into each door.
We then "tackled" the water tower, which is actually suprisingly high, but the highlight was the stunning views of the surrounding countryside, and out towards Cheltenham.
Obviously, with coal comes combustion, and with combustion comes fire, so the site had a 3 berth fire station. I wonder if it had those firemans poles...
I will certainly be returning in the future to check out the Coal Liquefaction Facilities, the office blocks (which also had labs; yay!) and an incredible looking store room with gas masks and glass jars filled with all sorts of things!
If you want to tag along PM me or add me on MSN at [email protected]
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