This is the first Report in a very long time, it seems anything I once uploaded has since been lost. Pictures are not wonderful, hopefully the story will excuse them to a degree and you might glean a sliver of wisdom, if you choose to make a visit to the Steelworks.
To kick off, I will readily confess that my friend and I are amateurs at best, we occasionally get together and find an abandoned site to visit. I have since moved out of the UK and whenever I visit we try and get an explore in for old time sake, this time we set our sites on the Steelworks, as we are both massive Bladerunner fans, and the steelworks throughout the Northeast were said to have inspired Ridley Scotts vision of the world shown in the movie, with the state of the works at present it seemed like we might be in the final days of being able to witness those sights for ourselves.
I will forgo the history of the site, as my report pales in comparison the others on here. 2016 seemed to be the golden year of reports as far as I could find, please take time to check them out.
In short, we got in, tripped an alarm, got chased by security, hid from them, they surrounded the area we were in, eventually, after dark, we had to crawl our way past them and managed to get away. I will detail the whole thing, hopefully this will shed light on the situation at the steelworks should you be interested in how their security works.
We decided to park the car further away at the Redcar seafront, parking is free in the winter, but it is the hangout of local radgees and their souped up Saxo's, they didn't give us any bother, but if your going at night, or will be leaving it their after dark be aware.
A long walk down the photogenic beach and through the Dunes was a nice way to scope out the site and we followed the security fence until it stopped about a quarter mile away from what I believe was the blast furnace.
The ground around the place is really marshy, there are many ways to get there without getting wet if you just look for the grassy pathways, but waterproof shoes are highly reccomended. Once we got past the fence we were in the large open space, presumably cleared in recent years, however the main site areas were still fenced off with that wire mesh fence used on building sites, it's easily climbable, but regrettably it sounds like falling into a drumkit regardless of your prowess, and also in a wide open area, our cavalier approach of just walking up and climbing over seemed to work, we then walked upto the furnace, past the gasometers and other outbuildings which we planned to explore later, time and conditions permitting. As we approached the main building, we came across short handrail height barriers around it, easy to jump, but before we did that we heard an alarm, turning round we spotted a small camera attached to a fence, like a wildlife camera, drab in colour and obviously capable of night vision, although it was still light when it got us. Our immediate reaction was to start looking for places to keep out of sight, assuming that if security came they would do a quick sweep of the area, not find us, decide we scarpered and then leave. About 2 minutes passed and as we walked around a corner a van sped up clearly seeing us, immediately we spun on our heels and sprinted back the way we came, back into the site, as we scurried back toward the camera location, another van was pulling around the building. Spotting a rat run we jumped up onto some pipes, ran between the buildings then dropped down into the mud below and concealed ourselves under the pipework. At this point we still believed they would be there for a few minutes and then leave if they didn't discover us, then we would try and get back into the building and continue our explore. We were reasonably well hidden but anyone deciding to crouch down would spot us. At this point the usual post being chased fears kicked in and I passed a few minutes worrying about my future, being arrested, banged up in some jail, or captured by MI5 and waterboarded. We passed about 10 minutes and another van turned up, doors opened, then closed, there were footsteps from multiples places and radio chatter could be heard, we started to become concerned, but decided to wait another 5 minutes. Time passes quickly when your hiding, and we gave it "another 5" for the next hour, light was fading, and they seemed to be driving around, getting out and walking around every couple of minutes. Gingerly I made the quietest crawl toward the end of our pipe alleyway, knowing at any moment we might get spotted as there still seemed to be people sporadically moving about and we would have to extricate ourselves from the pipes and start running again, I was able to make out a large transit van, visible through the gaps in the pillars under what I think was a large water hopper. My friend checked the other end of the alley and there was a pickup truck sitting just around the corner with it's headlights on, waiting, both of our exits were blocked, and what with there being a large open space to cover, a mad dash wouldn't be able to get us clear before security could beat us there, the closest fence was a galvanized security fence and would probably lead to injury if we ran for that, there was a ladder, and we considered running with it to the fence and making our escape that way, but the Laurel and Hardy approach was a last resort if anything, although I am sure it would have been the highlight of the security team's year to chase two people carrying a wooden ladder. Eventually, after much map consulting we managed to plan a bit of a route out, it involved a lot of leopard crawling and praying that the shadows and rubble would be enough to conceal us. We moved low and slow, and at one point my friend stopped me before I crawled right into the sightline of another waiting car. We made use of the cover as best we could and after a few hundred meters were able to get onto our feet and creep through the gasometers, not wanting to leave without at least some souvenirs I climbed a Gasometer, crossing my fingers that this indulgence wouldn't be rewarded with another alarm or a horrific accident as discovered that the ladder on the side of the structure was basically held on rusted steel no thicker than a pencil, thankfully it held, but I recommend taking the stairs next time. Photo snapped, I was just in the position to watch a truck move position and drive around the area that we were crawling through about 4 minutes earlier, he got out and shone a flashlight around then got back in the vehicle and waited a close call in the scheme of things. After the Gasometers, we crept over some pipes and skulked along under the cover available. The last area was an exposed open space upto to the security fence, we were close enough to know that a dash would clear us before security could get there if needed, so just walked it out and climbed the fence, it sent us off with something that sounded the way a one man band falling down the stairs might have, and with a final leap we were home clear, a lot of traipsing back to the car, but we were left with a new appreciation for how robust site security could be.
Below are the paltry photos I was able to snap, my advice to anyone going would be to acquire a low lux camera, or something that might reveal the locations of the security groups cameras as they looked like they had infra red lights on them. Also, patience is key if you are in hiding, we we're too cavalier in our approach, and also in our expectation of the response we would get, luckily we had warm clothes. I think cameras and alarms will be less inside, so plan your entry carefully and try to move around the site above ground level if possible.
To kick off, I will readily confess that my friend and I are amateurs at best, we occasionally get together and find an abandoned site to visit. I have since moved out of the UK and whenever I visit we try and get an explore in for old time sake, this time we set our sites on the Steelworks, as we are both massive Bladerunner fans, and the steelworks throughout the Northeast were said to have inspired Ridley Scotts vision of the world shown in the movie, with the state of the works at present it seemed like we might be in the final days of being able to witness those sights for ourselves.
I will forgo the history of the site, as my report pales in comparison the others on here. 2016 seemed to be the golden year of reports as far as I could find, please take time to check them out.
In short, we got in, tripped an alarm, got chased by security, hid from them, they surrounded the area we were in, eventually, after dark, we had to crawl our way past them and managed to get away. I will detail the whole thing, hopefully this will shed light on the situation at the steelworks should you be interested in how their security works.
We decided to park the car further away at the Redcar seafront, parking is free in the winter, but it is the hangout of local radgees and their souped up Saxo's, they didn't give us any bother, but if your going at night, or will be leaving it their after dark be aware.
A long walk down the photogenic beach and through the Dunes was a nice way to scope out the site and we followed the security fence until it stopped about a quarter mile away from what I believe was the blast furnace.
The ground around the place is really marshy, there are many ways to get there without getting wet if you just look for the grassy pathways, but waterproof shoes are highly reccomended. Once we got past the fence we were in the large open space, presumably cleared in recent years, however the main site areas were still fenced off with that wire mesh fence used on building sites, it's easily climbable, but regrettably it sounds like falling into a drumkit regardless of your prowess, and also in a wide open area, our cavalier approach of just walking up and climbing over seemed to work, we then walked upto the furnace, past the gasometers and other outbuildings which we planned to explore later, time and conditions permitting. As we approached the main building, we came across short handrail height barriers around it, easy to jump, but before we did that we heard an alarm, turning round we spotted a small camera attached to a fence, like a wildlife camera, drab in colour and obviously capable of night vision, although it was still light when it got us. Our immediate reaction was to start looking for places to keep out of sight, assuming that if security came they would do a quick sweep of the area, not find us, decide we scarpered and then leave. About 2 minutes passed and as we walked around a corner a van sped up clearly seeing us, immediately we spun on our heels and sprinted back the way we came, back into the site, as we scurried back toward the camera location, another van was pulling around the building. Spotting a rat run we jumped up onto some pipes, ran between the buildings then dropped down into the mud below and concealed ourselves under the pipework. At this point we still believed they would be there for a few minutes and then leave if they didn't discover us, then we would try and get back into the building and continue our explore. We were reasonably well hidden but anyone deciding to crouch down would spot us. At this point the usual post being chased fears kicked in and I passed a few minutes worrying about my future, being arrested, banged up in some jail, or captured by MI5 and waterboarded. We passed about 10 minutes and another van turned up, doors opened, then closed, there were footsteps from multiples places and radio chatter could be heard, we started to become concerned, but decided to wait another 5 minutes. Time passes quickly when your hiding, and we gave it "another 5" for the next hour, light was fading, and they seemed to be driving around, getting out and walking around every couple of minutes. Gingerly I made the quietest crawl toward the end of our pipe alleyway, knowing at any moment we might get spotted as there still seemed to be people sporadically moving about and we would have to extricate ourselves from the pipes and start running again, I was able to make out a large transit van, visible through the gaps in the pillars under what I think was a large water hopper. My friend checked the other end of the alley and there was a pickup truck sitting just around the corner with it's headlights on, waiting, both of our exits were blocked, and what with there being a large open space to cover, a mad dash wouldn't be able to get us clear before security could beat us there, the closest fence was a galvanized security fence and would probably lead to injury if we ran for that, there was a ladder, and we considered running with it to the fence and making our escape that way, but the Laurel and Hardy approach was a last resort if anything, although I am sure it would have been the highlight of the security team's year to chase two people carrying a wooden ladder. Eventually, after much map consulting we managed to plan a bit of a route out, it involved a lot of leopard crawling and praying that the shadows and rubble would be enough to conceal us. We moved low and slow, and at one point my friend stopped me before I crawled right into the sightline of another waiting car. We made use of the cover as best we could and after a few hundred meters were able to get onto our feet and creep through the gasometers, not wanting to leave without at least some souvenirs I climbed a Gasometer, crossing my fingers that this indulgence wouldn't be rewarded with another alarm or a horrific accident as discovered that the ladder on the side of the structure was basically held on rusted steel no thicker than a pencil, thankfully it held, but I recommend taking the stairs next time. Photo snapped, I was just in the position to watch a truck move position and drive around the area that we were crawling through about 4 minutes earlier, he got out and shone a flashlight around then got back in the vehicle and waited a close call in the scheme of things. After the Gasometers, we crept over some pipes and skulked along under the cover available. The last area was an exposed open space upto to the security fence, we were close enough to know that a dash would clear us before security could get there if needed, so just walked it out and climbed the fence, it sent us off with something that sounded the way a one man band falling down the stairs might have, and with a final leap we were home clear, a lot of traipsing back to the car, but we were left with a new appreciation for how robust site security could be.
Below are the paltry photos I was able to snap, my advice to anyone going would be to acquire a low lux camera, or something that might reveal the locations of the security groups cameras as they looked like they had infra red lights on them. Also, patience is key if you are in hiding, we we're too cavalier in our approach, and also in our expectation of the response we would get, luckily we had warm clothes. I think cameras and alarms will be less inside, so plan your entry carefully and try to move around the site above ground level if possible.
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