Benefiekd Auto Breakers - Jan 22

Heres another one that hasnt been reported but cant imagine it will be long before the goons find it.
I know this place well & have used this breakers for more than 25yr. It hasnt been abandoned for long, the owner died late last year & everything was subsequently auctioned off, unfortunately I missed the opportunity pre auction so expected empty shelves.



There was however all "the junk" left behind, but this place was a proper old school breakers so some of it is quite interesting.

How old school? well heres a whisky barrel still filled with his stock of car inner tubes!



It appears since my last visit that they had moved into the latest century catering for not only leyland & ford but also "french"



If u need a new set of lights or a wheel trim there is prob stil some here tbh





Even a few old lucas headlights







Or a pair of ancient spoked wheels for I dont know what!









Im sure someone out there is looking for a workshop manual for their Morris Half Ton van too



















A few unsold items still have lot numbers on

Continued

Heading back outside



This building was the office







I believe this static was the owners house







Yes this really is a thing (google it)





All in all quite a bit left to rummage through, hope you enjoyed.

Good report.
I have spent so long in these places dodging dog shite lying in the rain prizing out a gearbox, a hub or suspension part from a precariously piled stack of scrap cars wondering how long before my car see the same fate and in some cases wondering what chain of events led to the car I'm working on being there. There was one at Hillsborough in Sheffield where the background fizzing from the high voltage cables overhead in the mist just completed the feeling of desolation.

Roderick said:

Good report.
I have spent so long in these places dodging dog shite lying in the rain prizing out a gearbox, a hub or suspension part from a precariously piled stack of scrap cars wondering how long before my car see the same fate and in some cases wondering what chain of events led to the car I'm working on being there. There was one at Hillsborough in Sheffield where the background fizzing from the high voltage cables overhead in the mist just completed the feeling of desolation.

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Ditto iv spent way too long doing the same but not for the last 10yr tbh.
I remember going in here with my dad 25ish year back & we actually found a dash panel for his 1934 Morris 8 on the guys shelf!

BikinGlynn said:

Ditto iv spent way too long doing the same but not for the last 10yr tbh.
I remember going in here with my dad 25ish year back & we actually found a dash panel for his 1934 Morris 8 on the guys shelf!

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That was a hell of a lucky find even then. I thought I'd grown out of it too but I've got a replica E type and an old import Nissan which both seem to need bits you just can't get new these days when all the factors will work with is the reg number. To some extent derelict cars have a similar feel to derelict places for me.

Roderick said:

That was a hell of a lucky find even then. I thought I'd grown out of it too but I've got a replica E type and an old import Nissan which both seem to need bits you just can't get new these days when all the factors will work with is the reg number. To some extent derelict cars have a similar feel to derelict places for me.

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Me too I love car graveyards & have been to some absolute gems that seem to of stayed off the radar.
I have a minor with a 2l miriforri engine which is an ongoing project & my vw T4 that has been of the road 4 yr but I actually freed the brakes off & moved at weekend.
Im very old school customiser myself, even my T4 has about 30 different car parts on it, I used to just find stuff at scrappy & make it fit. I won Busfest best T4 2 years on trot way back, I guess it was the fact that it was all a bit different that people liked.
Unfortunately its just time & money stopping me getting em both sorted!

Roderick said:

That was a hell of a lucky find even then. I thought I'd grown out of it too but I've got a replica E type and an old import Nissan which both seem to need bits you just can't get new these days when all the factors will work with is the reg number. To some extent derelict cars have a similar feel to derelict places for me.

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Ever since I was a child, I've got something from wandering around abandoned buildings and sites in general. As a boy in Devon, I recall a long disused sawmill and walking the routes of lifted tramways and railways. Later. in Aden, there were long abandoned windmill driven Archimedes screw seawater pumps at the salt flats. It's a mixture of the sights, the smells ansd thinking of the people who lived and worked in the places. I also think people leave something intangible of themselves behind wherever they have been.

Hayman said:

Ever since I was a child, I've got something from wandering around abandoned buildings and sites in general. As a boy in Devon, I recall a long disused sawmill and walking the routes of lifted tramways and railways. Later. in Aden, there were long abandoned windmill driven Archimedes screw seawater pumps at the salt flats. It's a mixture of the sights, the smells ansd thinking of the people who lived and worked in the places. I also think people leave something intangible of themselves behind wherever they have been.

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I couldn't have put it better, as I child I used to visit what is now the restored Abbeydale industrial hamlet then quite a mess. Also there were a load of abandoned allotments with sheds and greenhouses and an abandoned scrap yard near where Hutcliffewood Crematorium is now. All overgrown with no obvious access we kids wriggled under fences and hedges to a land time forgot. The smells of the old leather, old engine oil, dry dusty work benches perishing rubber all somehow got imprinted on my young brain. Those seawater pumps sound amazing.

Roderick said:

I couldn't have put it better, as I child I used to visit what is now the restored Abbeydale industrial hamlet then quite a mess. Also there were a load of abandoned allotments with sheds and greenhouses and an abandoned scrap yard near where Hutcliffewood Crematorium is now. All overgrown with no obvious access we kids wriggled under fences and hedges to a land time forgot. The smells of the old leather, old engine oil, dry dusty work benches perishing rubber all somehow got imprinted on my young brain. Those seawater pumps sound amazing.

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Two smells still in my mind: the milky lubricating fluid used on the screw-cutting lathes at Swindon loco works; and that of the water-logged cellar when my parents took over an 1880 large family home as a guest house in Devon - both from the 1950s. Attached are photos of the derelict wind driven pumps in Aden in the early 1960s. And today the world is littered with wind turbines erractically producing electricity. Another smell: that of the catacombs at Kensal Green cemetery.

Hayman said:

Two smells still in my mind: the milky lubricating fluid used on the screw-cutting lathes at Swindon loco works; and that of the water-logged cellar when my parents took over an 1880 large family home as a guest house in Devon - both from the 1950s. Attached are photos of the derelict wind driven pumps in Aden in the early 1960s. And today the world is littered with wind turbines erractically producing electricity. Another smell: that of the catacombs at Kensal Green cemetery.

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Even better than I imagined - is there anything left of them today?

Is it me or is that an ex RAF building? concrete driveway and flat roofs.

Electric said:

Is it me or is that an ex RAF building? concrete driveway and flat roofs.

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You're correct, it's an airfield operations block where missions would have been planned and controlled. The building would have been sealed with filtered air passed through ducting to all the rooms.

Roderick said:

Even better than I imagined - is there anything left of them today?

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I've had a look online - both at Google Maps and at forces websites with photos of the saltpans. On Google I found three of the towers in a line, between what look like still worked saltpans and a new road. They had no sails or remains of them, and they looked very clean, almost as if they had been refurbished. One of the photos - from the 1960s - showed two close together; they could have been two of the three visible on Google Maps.

Electric said:

Is it me or is that an ex RAF building? concrete driveway and flat roofs.

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Yep thats right its all part of raf benefield. Thought Id done report on teh other airfield buildings but cant find it