The one that got away

[Scruffyone]

Ok, are there any sites you wished you'd ever got to before they were levelled? Ones where maybe you werent into exploring or maybe just cut things too fine with the 'It'll be there next week' way of thinking. The two for me that spring immediately to mind would be the old building behind Homebase in Parc Tawe, Im still gutted every time I go past there, and the old Emmanuel Bible College by Derwen Fawr. I actually got into the grounds with work, I was putting up signs saying the buildings were dangerous! I wasnt in to any of this at the time, although the place was fantastic, and it did start my interest off. All the buildings were standing, although the copper pipes were all stripped out & piled up, as were the beds and furniture. The science block had jars of bones on the windowsill. The only building in use when I was there was down by the petrol station on Oystermouth Road, It was used by the University rowing team to keep their boats in. Now both these places are long gone and i really should stop being so damn lazy and go and see stuff!
Carpe Diem my friends.....

 

[Black Shuck]

Yes this morning as a matter of fact. I went to have an explore of some old Sewage works only to find when I got there they were flattened

 

[escortmad79]

Dolphin Holiday Camp, Brixham (Caught fire & is now a housing estate)
Northcliffe Hotel, Brixham (Caught fire, then got torched, now pulled down)
Various hotels, Torquay (Closed then torched, now pulled down)
Lochore House (Just a patch of concrete & remains of the fence surrounding it left!)
Minto House (Most/All of it now demolished)
Criagtoun (Being converted into a golf place)

 

[the_historian]

The PoW camp at Castlerankine, Denny. I visited in '90, but the batteries in my camera died. The old regional council was in the process of trying to buy it and convert it into a tourist attraction, so I didn't worry too much.
By the time I got back a year later, someone had flattened it and built a luxury villa on the site.

 

[ThenewMendoza]

I don't normally enjoy hospitals but as this was my local I feel slightly put out by the fact it was knocked down pretty much the day the patients moved out.

Winwick Hospital, Warrington - [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK96X2ID03k[/ame]

There's quite a few related videos too that are worth a look.

M

 

[Parkus.]

- Consett Works, Durham.
- Eppleton Colliery, Hetton-le-Hole; Durham.
actualy, any of the big collieries that were part of the Durham coal field.

 

[smiffy]

A little Coal Freemine that had been on the side of a one track lane for over 40 years............worked by a couple of old fellas and wedged into a slight layby in the lane......I'd been past it literally dozens of times in my life ........it was just one of those fixtures that had been there forever and seemed like it would always be there.......Finally realised one day that I didn't have any photos of it all so jumped in my truck and drove the no more than 5 miles or so to get it logged....
......The layby is completely clear and apart from a couple of short bits of rail, some lumps of wood and a bit of coal spoil its gone...............the drift has been completle covered by about 10 feet of spoil and has gone forever.............Grrrrrr!

 

[smileysal]

My old holiday camp in Paignton, Devon Coast, closed then couple of days later, fire ripped through main venues, now a housing estate.

Torbay chalet hotel, Pontins, now a housing estate,
Dovercourt Bay HC, was used to film Hi-de-HI, housing estate,
Sussex Coast HV - Started life as a Sea Plane factory/airfield, had two hangars, then one used as a restaurant, then a hotel, then a country club, then holiday centre - now a housing estate

Butlin's Filey - explored it over a 20 year period, never took pics now Holiday homes,
Butlin's Clacton - now housing estate,
Butlin's Barry Island - housing estate,

The older former Clowne college campus, nearly all gone,
Coates Viyella, Car Vale, Bolsover - now a housing estate,
Coates Viyella, Botany Avenue, Sutton in Ashfield - the whole site in use as various industrial units,
Pretty Polly factory, Kings folly road, Kirkby, - housing estate,
Pretty Polly factory, sutton in Ashfield, - nearly all gone

Duckmanton rail tunnel before it was infilled,

All the former rail stations that are now demolished, wish i'd have been around to take pics of those.

Can't remember the rest of the stuff I've missed.

Sal

ps, ooooooooooooh, the old trebor bassetts (laterly Cadbury's) in Chesterfield, - all demolished.

The Home Ales Brewery, Mansfield Road, Nottingham, - now front main building used as council offices, the back all demolished and a retail park built in its place.

oooooh, and wish I'd got pics of the old ice rink in Nottingham, when it was closed, demolished and the new National Ice Centre built in it's place.

Far too many places I've missed out on exploring that are now gone. Learn't to take my camera with me everywhere nowadays

Sorry it's sooooooo long

 

[jonney]

The old WW2 cold storage in Willington, County Durham. We used to play in there when we were kids. The air raid siren was still there and in working condition (we used to set it off for dares). The army had to be called in at one point because one of my friends found a live hand grenade in one of the ammo boxes that were floating around in the flooded cellars under the platforms. It took them 2 days to search and clear the place. They removed 2 full truck loads of live ammo from there. That was in the early 80's. It was demolished not long after that and is now the site of a nursing home. There were only 40 in the country and sadly all 3 in the North East are gone. Some examples still survive today as in this one at Farncombe

I still have a mental map of the place burned into my brain as we used to be in there all the time...

 

[chizyramone]

My old holiday camp in Paignton, Devon Coast, closed then couple of days later, fire ripped through main venues, now a housing estate.

Torbay chalet hotel, Pontins, now a housing estate,
Dovercourt Bay HC, was used to film Hi-de-HI, housing estate,
Sussex Coast HV - Started life as a Sea Plane factory/airfield, had two hangars, then one used as a restaurant, then a hotel, then a country club, then holiday centre - now a housing estate

Butlin's Filey - explored it over a 20 year period, never took pics now Holiday homes,
Butlin's Clacton - now housing estate,
Butlin's Barry Island - housing estate,

The older former Clowne college campus, nearly all gone,
Coates Viyella, Car Vale, Bolsover - now a housing estate,
Coates Viyella, Botany Avenue, Sutton in Ashfield - the whole site in use as various industrial units,
Pretty Polly factory, Kings folly road, Kirkby, - housing estate,
Pretty Polly factory, sutton in Ashfield, - nearly all gone

Duckmanton rail tunnel before it was infilled,

All the former rail stations that are now demolished, wish i'd have been around to take pics of those.

Can't remember the rest of the stuff I've missed.

Sal

ps, ooooooooooooh, the old trebor bassetts (laterly Cadbury's) in Chesterfield, - all demolished.

The Home Ales Brewery, Mansfield Road, Nottingham, - now front main building used as council offices, the back all demolished and a retail park built in its place.

oooooh, and wish I'd got pics of the old ice rink in Nottingham, when it was closed, demolished and the new National Ice Centre built in it's place.

Far too many places I've missed out on exploring that are now gone. Learn't to take my camera with me everywhere nowadays

Sorry it's sooooooo long

Any more Sal?

 

[celo]

Howden House, Livingston

Howden House, Livingston - One of my friends grandads played bowls with the old security guard there and he used to let us in and run about to our hearts content but I was too young to think of taking a camera. At the time there was loads of stuff sitting as it was left MANY years ago like some kids toys, clothes and the beds. Since then it's been mostly cleared out, set on fire a few times and boarded up with those metal plates that are secured from the inside, hefty metal plates covering the front door and have a company providing security from the comfort of a van, as even they can't get in.

 

[Seahorse]

Mormond Hill in Aberdeenshire. Never thought to take a camera as I imagined it would be there forever. Largely unchaved as it was a fair old hike to get there, with a bloody big fence around it.

Then the fence came down, the neds got in. And it got demo'd anyway.

I'm determined to see inside a certain "Big Hoose" just down the road from me at some point, before SSE pulls down a fantastic listed building, simply because they have deep pockets, and therefore, can.

 

[godzilla73]

The Radio Liberty site at Playa de Pals in Spain. It was offline since the late 90's (collapse of Communism and all that) I go on holiday near there every year and for about four years I kept going to the Mrs "I must get down there and check it out before they demolish it" Then two years ago, I turned up there for my annual hols and the whole thing had been flattened.
It broadcast behind the iron curtain for over 40 years and was manned by the American forces, who needless tosay saw it as one of their more enjoyable overseas postings.
Fortunately,(or unfortunately, depending on your viewpoint) the nice people at Youtube have got a load of videos of it being demolished, like this one.


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctmDpuKEWhY[/ame]

Or you can read about it at http://www.radioliberty.org/introang.html

This year I'll have a look and see if there's anything left.

 

[Gibbo]

I'd like to have looked round the old WW2 airfield at Skegness where they built Butlins. They owned the entire site but only developed parts when they needed it so there was a lot of stuff left.

That, and the title of this thread - Grizedale Hall POW camp, used in the film "The One That Got Away".

 

[marked-man]

Years ago I once visited Ribchester Work house a satilite of Whittingham had a look on Gooogle and all was intact all that was left was the boundary wall and admin plus a housing estate

 

[PaulPowers]

Haddon Hall, worse thing is I live around the corner from where it was ànd just put it off for things further afield

 

[mookster]

Cane Hill, actively got into this about a year too late all I got to see was the outside from the fence mid-demo. One of my biggest regrets.

And Severalls pre-epic fence.

 

[RichardB]

There are a couple I regret. One is the quarry at Cults- I went in a few times, but never had a proper look and never took any pictures. It has been filled in for a few years now.

There are two reasons I wish I'd had a better look. One was that the quarry face showed off all the layers of soil and rock beautifully. The other is that I think the face might have offered access to the further reaches of the mine. Most people who explore the mines comment on all the rock falls- this quarry is the cause of most of them and it's also why there are so many dead ends. I also regret not having a better look around the whole area in the 1980s and 1990s.

The other one I regret not having a better look at was Woodburne House in the village where I grew up.

This had a fairly typical country house life cycle. By the late 1960s the family were living in two rooms while the rest of it crumbled around them. There were a couple of abortive attempts at making it into a hotel in the 1970s and it was demolished in the 1980s to make room for some little boxes. We went in a couple of times but I hadn't grasped the concept of things not being around forever, and by the time I got round to going for a proper look it was too late.