I'll be honest, I totally forgot this place existed until a report went up earlier this year showing it to be very much still around. Whilst in the area ealier this month, and after copious amounts of time wandering around the excellent array of antique stores down the road at the former RAF Hemswell whilst sheltering from the rain and wind, it suddenly clicked that we were very near it so it would be rude not to swing by and see what was going on.
Not a lot, as it would turn out to be a surprisingly simple and uneventful explore. The security that apparently used to be there seemed to be taking some time off, and every building we tried was easily accessible. We wandered around the base vaguely north to south, we didn't look inside any of the myriad of accomodation buildings as I've seen so many of those in my time, we also missed out on the tower as by the time we got down to that end of the site the rain was relentless, we were losing light and had a long journey home, so sadly that was skipped.
Post closure, in January this year plans were approved for construction of 350 homes on the land, but as and when that will start is anyone's guess.
After a wet wander around the perimeter we found an easy way in and made a beeline for the first building I saw with an open door, primarily to get out of the rain and orientate ourselves. It turned out to be the former base nursery, with what I believe to be the attached dental clinic via a corridor, but as is the case with MOD stuff it is all so heavily stripped it is impossible to work out on the fly. From there we headed further into the site, making tracks to the XL Leisure building, and then the former original Officers Mess which is in a much more heavily decayed state and seems to have been closed since the 1990s - very reminiscent of the decayed state of RAF Church Fenton and it was by far my favourite building, filled with peeling wallpaper, peeling paint and rotten floors. We then popped down to the boiler house, the ammunition storage bunker, and a stores/maintenance building before heading back to the car. In nicer weather I'd have definitely spent a lot longer here than we did, but by the end of it we had both had enough of the rain and wind, and with a long journey home headed out.
There was a very brief window where it wasn't raining as bad so I snapped a couple of externals going between buildings.
Thanks for looking
Not a lot, as it would turn out to be a surprisingly simple and uneventful explore. The security that apparently used to be there seemed to be taking some time off, and every building we tried was easily accessible. We wandered around the base vaguely north to south, we didn't look inside any of the myriad of accomodation buildings as I've seen so many of those in my time, we also missed out on the tower as by the time we got down to that end of the site the rain was relentless, we were losing light and had a long journey home, so sadly that was skipped.
Post closure, in January this year plans were approved for construction of 350 homes on the land, but as and when that will start is anyone's guess.
After a wet wander around the perimeter we found an easy way in and made a beeline for the first building I saw with an open door, primarily to get out of the rain and orientate ourselves. It turned out to be the former base nursery, with what I believe to be the attached dental clinic via a corridor, but as is the case with MOD stuff it is all so heavily stripped it is impossible to work out on the fly. From there we headed further into the site, making tracks to the XL Leisure building, and then the former original Officers Mess which is in a much more heavily decayed state and seems to have been closed since the 1990s - very reminiscent of the decayed state of RAF Church Fenton and it was by far my favourite building, filled with peeling wallpaper, peeling paint and rotten floors. We then popped down to the boiler house, the ammunition storage bunker, and a stores/maintenance building before heading back to the car. In nicer weather I'd have definitely spent a lot longer here than we did, but by the end of it we had both had enough of the rain and wind, and with a long journey home headed out.
There was a very brief window where it wasn't raining as bad so I snapped a couple of externals going between buildings.
Thanks for looking
