Splinter’s Lair (Resi)

Been meaning to hit this place up for a little while, each time I’ve been there in the past there was much less water and some rather large rats mooching around inside.

In fact on my first visit one dark night I waved a P7 around and caught sight of a very large rat I dubbed Splinter. He stopped for a second and looked at me before carrying on about his business in a Devil May Care kind of way, he didn’t care that I was watching him nor that I was hitting him with 200 lumens.

Yesterday was so boring after a day of Jet Washing the patio I decided to go back to Splinters Lair with a camera and fire off a few shots. It’s not a big place, just three arches and with much of the original pipework still intact. Still trying to pin an exact date on it, at first (at night) I thought it was Victorian but now I doubt that.

Last night there was about a foot of water inside and no sign of Splinter or his mates, I’m sure he will be back when it dries out though 🙂

2013 – Carpe diem…Carpe diem!!!

2012 kind of sucked regarding exploring and ultimately was a disappointment….lots of doors where ‘shut’ in our faces thanks to the narcissistic actions of others (you know who you are, I know who some of you are….and really you SHOULD know better), locations sealed, locations burned…blah blah blah.

The year ended with an epic though, that I can’t talk about in public, so it wasn’t all bad. So while we were out yesterday walking off some of the Xmas Fat we decided the whole Carpe diem thing should apply this year……work hard at making opportunities, hit things fast instead of sitting on them (so they get discovered by others and burned…), well that’s the theory and it’s easy to be so full of enthusiasm in January LOL!

A few pix of the twin bores we visited, there’s another pair about 1.5 miles south that we also went to, (so ended up walking about 5 miles), nothing too exciting I know.

All shots handheld on the Lumix TZ6

Hiatus

Not dead, not given up exploring, although I am totally sick of all the ‘Look At Me’ narcissists out there who are falling over themselves to show off sites in order to get praise from their peers.Is it possible to be an actual ‘Insecure Willy Waver’….?I’ve just been away doing stuff that I’m either not going to publish myself or I have been asked/ordered not to publish. I’m cool with both of those as I have nothing to prove to anybody and the fun is in the actual exploring, not showing off Trophy Pix.

Some lame crap I can post here (just to show some activity…) is some stills from a WW2 Operations Block shot back in October. We were there testing GoPro POV camera’s before and after a firmware upgrade that seems to have screwed them up somewhat. I seem to have lost the video footage we shot someplace but when I locate the files I will add them to this post.

It’s a shame about the state of this place, the local Chav morons seem to like trashing the place and holding raves in here from time to time, even knocking down a bricked up entrance to get their lame PA and Lighting Rig in here. Sadly the world will always be full of shitheads polluting the gene pool, its a fact of life.

Chesty Morgan

Now the title has grabbed your attention (but only if you are male and over 40) I will disappoint you by not showing you a pair of 73FF breasts but instead another piece of junk for my car boot.

I do expect to get a lot of use out of this particular toy though as it can be used in so many locations. In a nutshell its a small elasticated Chest Harness that lets you mount a GoPro HD Hero or GoPro HD Hero2 out of the way but in the perfect place for action shots and in a more discreet way than the ‘stands out a mile’ Head Strap Mount that I also use from time to time.

Stand by for some video content in the future 🙂

Bury Internalz

Carrying on with the Mil Derp Cold War vibe from earlier posts…..enjoy

Bulk Fuel Storage (WW2)
Transmitter Building
Briefing Room (Badly lightpainted…)
Flora & Fauna 🙂

Building 25 – Decontamination Area

More rush lightpainting (soz about passing headtorches…)

Better this time…(shot in total darkness)

Building 25 Hard Area

Parachute Store (Building 51)

 

Photographic Processing and Interpretation Facility (Building 69)

 

No Promise Of Safety…

Safety Boots should do what they say on the tin, keep your feet safe, this just goes to show you can never be sure.If I had been wearing trainers my foot would have been cut in half. Luckily too I was wearing two pairs of socks and I just suffered sliced socks and a bruised foot.
The blurb for these boots said:

‘200 Joule composite toecap, composite midsole, double shock absorption sole, penetration resistant midsole’.

My arse…steel sliced through the sole and up through the arch of the boot, slicing the side open along the way, all the way to my foot…

ISO 20345:2011 – FAIL !!!

Mil Derp

Apologies for the hiatus, I have been very sick for a while, some kind of mystery illness that wiped me out for a few weeks, possibly caused by some unclassified primordial ooze bacteria that I disturbed a mile underground, or maybe just a virulent generic ‘bug’ that’s doing the rounds, either way it sucks being so ill….

Explored in glorious 29 degree heat, this place has seen it all, starting in 1916 with the Royal Flying Corps, 70 Wing RAF in 1939 then in 1950 the Strategic Air Command arrived and a long string of Bomber/Fighter/Tactical squadrons followed.

All sorts has flown out of here, some of the more notable being Convair B-36 Peacemakers, B-52 Stratofortress, Lockheed U-2 Spy Planes, F-101 Voodoo’s, Phantoms and General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark’s involved in numerous combat operations such as Libya and Operation Desert Storm.

Victor Alert QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) Hardened Shelters
Hardened Crew Quarters (Victor Alert)
Jet Engine Test Cell Building

Stargate

Someone once said patience is a virtue and maybe they were right, there were some wise words written in The Battle for the Soul of Man…anyway, we have been waiting for over a year to go through the Stargate and many failed attempts have cost dearly in equipment, not to mention getting sick because of the atmosphere.

I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that we would never get close to it, even after some tantalising glimpses but karma was on our side and we even managed to recover some equipment lost months ago (more on that in a future post). The Stargate was reached….and we went through…to new worlds…

Someone shooting me , shooting the Stargate

Tresham College Farewell (Corby George Street Campus)

This isn’t your normal ‘report’ on somederp it’s just a quick post for posterity and historical interest on the passing ofTresham College (Corby) George Street Campus.By the time you read this the building will have been reduced to rubble after standing in the town for 60 years.It was nothing to look at architecturally and if people were honest it was a tired eyesore of past times. I watched it close and I watched theTellytubbysecca each night as he fed his face with takeaways while scanning the CCTV in his hut before the demo team moved onto site. The place was so lame I didn’t bother exploring it (not my bag really) but it deserves a few words as it breathes its last…Some cut ‘n’ paste history from the Internets
Portions of text Copyright © 2011 – Olivia Morton (Tresham College of Further and Higher Education)

Corby Technical College opened on September 16th 1940, to 21 students and was called JTS. JTS developed from a small number of workshops to Corby Technical College where expansion at the college led to more buildings in George Street and Rockingham Road.

The site, now used by Tresham, opened as Corby Technical College’s engineering department on September 16th 1957.

Mr AJ Price was the principal at the time and remained to see the college develop and introduce the building department on September 11th 1958, the commercial department on September 10, 1959 and finally the science department, which moved to the premises on September 8th 1960.

The George Street campus was officially opened on October 20th 1961, by Sir John Cockroft. On January 11th 1978, the merger of Corby and Kettering Technical Colleges was announced and was renamed as Tresham College.

In September 2011 Tresham College moved to a new £36m premises in Oakley Road.

6th September 1957 (News Article)

First installment of county’s finest technical college is ready
The first step in Corby’s most important educational project yet was made when the initial installment of the new college opened for full time students on Thursday (12th September 1957) followed by day release and evening instruction for other students on Monday September 16th.
Both buildings (including Rockingham Road) saw some 1,100 students registered for the winter term.
The ‘new’ George Street College catered for all engineering provision and the General Certificate of Education. The‘imposing’ three-storey façade was only a quarter of the
intended whole building due for completion three years later, aimed to rank as the finest technical college in the county with accommodation for over 2,000 vocational students. The
college was built in three stages – firstly the engineering block included classrooms, lecture theatre, canteen and staff rooms, engineering workshop, electrical installation workshop and laboratories, electronics, heat engines, hydraulics, strength of materials, metrology.

The second installment, the largest of the three, was to include workshops for bricklaying, carpentry, plumbing, painting and pipe fitting. The third section was a four storey block for the main entrance to the college. The ground floor would provide a large lecture room, common rooms, needlework and other classrooms. In addition it was described
to include the commercial and “women’s departments” for cooking, housecraft and general craft. Behind the four storey block a large assembly hall was planned with its own separate entrance complete with a stage and three dressing rooms, kitchen, dining room and foyer.

11th January 1978 (News Article)
The merger of Kettering and Corby Technical Colleges was approved and to become one college by September 1st 1978 following on the success of the Nene College merger in Northampton. The first step was to find a Principal to run the college by April 1st 1978, whilst the education committee looked for a new and distinctive name to identify the college.
Cllr Lovel Garrett said the merger would improve standards in the north of the county. New courses were likely to be authorised because the new college would be on a higher grade than the two existing colleges.

7th August 1978
The name of the merged Corby and Kettering Technical Colleges was announced as Tresham College. County Education chiefs decided on the new name ready for the new term on September 1st 1978. The amalgamation of the two technical colleges was part of plans to streamline college facilities in the north of the county.
Tresham is a well known Northamptonshire family name which became prominent in the 15th century. Several buildings in the towns served by the new college were either built, designed or owned by members of the Tresham family.
These included Rushton Hall, the Triangular Lodge, the New Building at Lyveden, Manor House at Pilton and there are kneeling figures in the cross of St Faith’s Church at Newton.

In better times
Death Knell