Didn't plan on heading North again until the Spring, but I heard this was wide open, so decided to make the trip... Found time 4 weeks later, and it had unfortunately been sealed back up tight... Well mostly 
Doesn't appear that anybody has done a report on here before, so here goes!
The History -
Built around 1982 on the former site of the Midland Ironworks, the 17,000 square metre depot consists of maintenance faculties, cleaning facilities, a large canteen and admin offices. At its peak, the depot housed 230 drivers and 80 vehicles.
By 2016, the facility had become too large for First's needs, with the company making a loss by continuing to operate the site. They announced plans to close it and move most operations and staff to the nearby Olive Grove Road Depot in Sheffield, with some going to Doncaster, along with 20 redundancies. The site closed in February 2017.
Apparently the site subsequently saw use as a police firearms training facility, but I didn't see any evidence of this.
The site last saw use as a vaccination centre during the Covid-19 Pandemic, and is now up for sale, with or without demolition of the depot. I guess the local authority are fed up with spending £160k a year failing to keep it secure...
The Explore -
(Photo Heavy)
Arrived on site early, having been told there were travellers present, so was aiming to explore while they were still asleep. Turns out the local authority managed to move them on pretty quick, because other than some piles of rubbish, there was no sign of them. The site had also been heavily resealed unfortunately.
My information said the front gates were open, a brand new fence has now been erected, so the walk in option was out! Wandered around the perimeter, and found multiple holes that had also been patched over. Having pretty much lost hope of getting in, I headed back towards the car. Thought I'd better check the only part of the perimeter I hadn't walked along, and it's lucky that I did, because there was a fire door conveniently left open for me!
Walked into a room that somebody had tried hard to torch... there was a sprinkler valve set in here, alongside a couple of bits on the wall. Disturbed a rat that had made itself at home too.
Proceeded through and the door out into the yard was also open, so I was in! Decided to stick with the ancillary buildings first, so I ducked into an open door immediately to the left of my access point.
Appeared to just contain toilets, so I headed up the stairs to see if there was anything else. I rounded the corner and was immediately greeted by a small gantry crane, and a sheer drop behind it.
Proceeding further into the room, there's an electrical room on the right, with fuse boxes for the ventilation etc for the toilets below. The rest of the floor is dominated by a series of large oil tanks, with separate tanks for each type of oil, such as gearbox and engine oil. At the end of the room was a locked door, and my favourite, some gauges.
Moving on from the oil room, I proceeded towards the Boiler House. It's got to be the best part of the explore, there's more in this one small building than over the rest of the site combined!
Straight in through the door is a small control room, didn't go in though, as the door was very stiff and extremely loud to move, so had a look through the window instead. All the electrics have been gutted, but you can still get an idea of the level of control afforded to the running of the boilers.
The Boiler House is, unsurprisingly, dominated by the 3 large boilers, with huge hoppers above them. The first 2 were coal fired, and the 3rd also appeared to be at one time, but has been converted to run on oil. You can see how coal was supplied to the boilers from the hoppers above here. It was fed into the boilers via an Archimedes Screw, contained within a pipe.
The Boilers -
Behind the boilers are water pumps of various descriptions, with gauges and control panels galore. Very photogenic
I had to go up the ladders to get a view from above... The hoppers for the two coal fired boilers are still full of coal!
The walkway above the Boilers -
Coal Hoppers -
Made my way back down and moved over to the maintenance sheds. Massive inside, and empty... Few small details dotted around, but not really all that much to be seen. I'd imagine it was a very different atmosphere back in the day.
Maintenance Sheds -
Safety Notices -
Interesting things dotted about -
Moved on through to the admin area, found a safe in the offices but left quickly, smelt like a sewer, not sure if that was down to the travellers or something else, but I wasn't hanging around as the stench was unbearably overpowering. I don't know if there's anything decent hiding back there in some of the offices, probably is knowing my luck
There was some classrooms in this section, but they were in a dire state with nothing noteworthy to look at, so I went back on myself to finish the maintenance sheds, as the classrooms were close to the road and there was a fair bit of traffic going past at this point.
Came out in what I'm assuming was the parking area for buses... another large empty area, but there's a couple of bits to look at, including the bus wash area, and an electrical room.
Bus Mural -
Bus Wash -
Electrical Room -
Finished the explore by heading to the upstairs section in the maintenance area of the sheds, nothing much to be seen, bar more electrical panels that are in a poor state. Found a few more gauges outside on my way out of the site at least!
Doesn't appear that anybody has done a report on here before, so here goes!
The History -
Built around 1982 on the former site of the Midland Ironworks, the 17,000 square metre depot consists of maintenance faculties, cleaning facilities, a large canteen and admin offices. At its peak, the depot housed 230 drivers and 80 vehicles.
By 2016, the facility had become too large for First's needs, with the company making a loss by continuing to operate the site. They announced plans to close it and move most operations and staff to the nearby Olive Grove Road Depot in Sheffield, with some going to Doncaster, along with 20 redundancies. The site closed in February 2017.
Apparently the site subsequently saw use as a police firearms training facility, but I didn't see any evidence of this.
The site last saw use as a vaccination centre during the Covid-19 Pandemic, and is now up for sale, with or without demolition of the depot. I guess the local authority are fed up with spending £160k a year failing to keep it secure...
The Explore -
(Photo Heavy)
Arrived on site early, having been told there were travellers present, so was aiming to explore while they were still asleep. Turns out the local authority managed to move them on pretty quick, because other than some piles of rubbish, there was no sign of them. The site had also been heavily resealed unfortunately.
My information said the front gates were open, a brand new fence has now been erected, so the walk in option was out! Wandered around the perimeter, and found multiple holes that had also been patched over. Having pretty much lost hope of getting in, I headed back towards the car. Thought I'd better check the only part of the perimeter I hadn't walked along, and it's lucky that I did, because there was a fire door conveniently left open for me!
Walked into a room that somebody had tried hard to torch... there was a sprinkler valve set in here, alongside a couple of bits on the wall. Disturbed a rat that had made itself at home too.
Proceeded through and the door out into the yard was also open, so I was in! Decided to stick with the ancillary buildings first, so I ducked into an open door immediately to the left of my access point.
Appeared to just contain toilets, so I headed up the stairs to see if there was anything else. I rounded the corner and was immediately greeted by a small gantry crane, and a sheer drop behind it.
Proceeding further into the room, there's an electrical room on the right, with fuse boxes for the ventilation etc for the toilets below. The rest of the floor is dominated by a series of large oil tanks, with separate tanks for each type of oil, such as gearbox and engine oil. At the end of the room was a locked door, and my favourite, some gauges.
Moving on from the oil room, I proceeded towards the Boiler House. It's got to be the best part of the explore, there's more in this one small building than over the rest of the site combined!
Straight in through the door is a small control room, didn't go in though, as the door was very stiff and extremely loud to move, so had a look through the window instead. All the electrics have been gutted, but you can still get an idea of the level of control afforded to the running of the boilers.
The Boiler House is, unsurprisingly, dominated by the 3 large boilers, with huge hoppers above them. The first 2 were coal fired, and the 3rd also appeared to be at one time, but has been converted to run on oil. You can see how coal was supplied to the boilers from the hoppers above here. It was fed into the boilers via an Archimedes Screw, contained within a pipe.
The Boilers -
Behind the boilers are water pumps of various descriptions, with gauges and control panels galore. Very photogenic
I had to go up the ladders to get a view from above... The hoppers for the two coal fired boilers are still full of coal!
The walkway above the Boilers -
Coal Hoppers -
Made my way back down and moved over to the maintenance sheds. Massive inside, and empty... Few small details dotted around, but not really all that much to be seen. I'd imagine it was a very different atmosphere back in the day.
Maintenance Sheds -
Safety Notices -
Interesting things dotted about -
Moved on through to the admin area, found a safe in the offices but left quickly, smelt like a sewer, not sure if that was down to the travellers or something else, but I wasn't hanging around as the stench was unbearably overpowering. I don't know if there's anything decent hiding back there in some of the offices, probably is knowing my luck
There was some classrooms in this section, but they were in a dire state with nothing noteworthy to look at, so I went back on myself to finish the maintenance sheds, as the classrooms were close to the road and there was a fair bit of traffic going past at this point.
Came out in what I'm assuming was the parking area for buses... another large empty area, but there's a couple of bits to look at, including the bus wash area, and an electrical room.
Bus Mural -
Bus Wash -
Electrical Room -
Finished the explore by heading to the upstairs section in the maintenance area of the sheds, nothing much to be seen, bar more electrical panels that are in a poor state. Found a few more gauges outside on my way out of the site at least!
