Here we go again! So last week i had a go at you lot for missing somewhere. This time im simply going to beg. Il get down on my metaphorical knees and beg people to just go exploring! This plant is so iconic. Such a massive place in the history of the area and in the history of UK vehicle production i general. Over a year ago i posted a thread in the leads section with details of the closure of this plant and the Transit plant at Southampton hoping people would go and explore them, neither got explored. The Transit plant we did last week and although we were probably late for that it didn't really seem to have mattered too much, there was still plenty to see and the place still felt like a car plant that closed a few weeks ago. Here things were different. The place is largely now empty. Shop floors are sparse, offices almost empty. Of the main feature of the plant, the massive pressing lines, only two remain intact out of 30 or more. If it had been left another month id say it would have been as good as missed. Now i know people have gone and looked at this and maybe given it a miss as it looked 'quite well secure' or 'quite live' or whatever, that's fair enough we all have those days but compared to how many explorers are out there the one group i know if isn't a very big percentage. My impression of the place was nothing less than epic and not really much else than WIDE open either. Poor CCTV, Poor IR beams, No obvious security, Open doors ,Open Windows and a ropey fence down a quiet street. Couldn't have been much easier. Last week a few people were having a go at me for being elitist. Im making quite sure here im not!.. anyone could have done this explore!
Anyway chew on that. I had a great evening on my own mooching about here, the basement under the southern press shop was mega, so dated and not something i had ever seen before in a press shop. They normally just build them in pits. Theres parts of the plant i checked at the northern end that appear to have laid derelict for years but i will need a daylight trip to photograph these. Theres also offices and must be more remains of the tooling side of the site even if we are too late to see epic untouched tool rooms. Will be back again asap but for now go and see the presses before they are gone.
Anyway chew on that. I had a great evening on my own mooching about here, the basement under the southern press shop was mega, so dated and not something i had ever seen before in a press shop. They normally just build them in pits. Theres parts of the plant i checked at the northern end that appear to have laid derelict for years but i will need a daylight trip to photograph these. Theres also offices and must be more remains of the tooling side of the site even if we are too late to see epic untouched tool rooms. Will be back again asap but for now go and see the presses before they are gone.
