Following an early morning failure myself and Landie Man headed onwards to what was originally our morning backup explore but actually turned into a very enjoyable wander indeed, probably better than what we had actually originally planned for the morning and somewhere nobody really goes any more.
The British Sugar refinery between Ipswich and Sproughton closed down in 2001, was explored a fair amount in the mid-00s and then the majority of the facility was demolished. Luckily for us explorer types they managed to leave behind the four enormous, imposing old storage silos which are visible for miles around. Getting in was pretty easy although instead of going the easy long way round to get to the silos Landie decided we should go 'as the crow flies' and make a beeline straight through chest high weeds and stinging nettles which resulted in me obtaining about fifteen thousand insect bites. You can get about five storeys up both pairs of silos before you're confronted with a straight drop to ground level, so the view from there is pretty great. If you have massive bollocks you can climb the ladders all the way up the outside though, with the help of some rope. Needless to say neither of us really fancied that.
Underneath the silos I was instantly reminded of the incomparably enormous Concrete Central Grain Elevator in Buffalo that I explored a year and a half ago, although on a much much smaller scale - the one in Buffalo being near as makes no difference half a mile long from end to end.
In areas this place absolutely stinks of fifteen year old glucose, the climb up the stairs in one half of the site nearly made me gag it's that bad.
Anyone for fifteen year old sugar?
Thanks for looking, more photos here https://www.flickr.com/photos/mookie427/albums/72157669329719925
The British Sugar refinery between Ipswich and Sproughton closed down in 2001, was explored a fair amount in the mid-00s and then the majority of the facility was demolished. Luckily for us explorer types they managed to leave behind the four enormous, imposing old storage silos which are visible for miles around. Getting in was pretty easy although instead of going the easy long way round to get to the silos Landie decided we should go 'as the crow flies' and make a beeline straight through chest high weeds and stinging nettles which resulted in me obtaining about fifteen thousand insect bites. You can get about five storeys up both pairs of silos before you're confronted with a straight drop to ground level, so the view from there is pretty great. If you have massive bollocks you can climb the ladders all the way up the outside though, with the help of some rope. Needless to say neither of us really fancied that.
Underneath the silos I was instantly reminded of the incomparably enormous Concrete Central Grain Elevator in Buffalo that I explored a year and a half ago, although on a much much smaller scale - the one in Buffalo being near as makes no difference half a mile long from end to end.
In areas this place absolutely stinks of fifteen year old glucose, the climb up the stairs in one half of the site nearly made me gag it's that bad.
Anyone for fifteen year old sugar?
Thanks for looking, more photos here https://www.flickr.com/photos/mookie427/albums/72157669329719925
