The History:
Dating back to 1898 the works are the extension of Fletton brick making in Peterborough. The works started in Elstow and later spread to Wootton Pillinge and later became named Stewartby due to the brickworks.
In 1936 the works was taken over by the London Brick Company through a merging of companies. This lead to the expansion of the site with the construction of two brick kilns which later became listed structures. Through the beliefs of the Stewart family the village of Wootton became the Stewartby Model Village wich allowed for better living conditions for Stewartby's workforce and allowed the plant greater control of the workers. The villages later became known as Stewartby parish. By 1936 the works had become the largest in the world, employing 5000 workers at its peak, producing over 500 Million bricks and was one of the many large industries of Bedfordshire.
The Explore:
We set off for a lovely hour and a half drive up here. Just me and one other pal. Which, this explore was really fun. Possibly one of the biggest sites I've been and explored (with the exception of maybe Severalls Asylum in Colchester). After being a pair of idiots and creeping in down the side of a building through stinging nettles and thorn bushes whilst wearing shorts, big mistake, lol. (Later on at the end of the explore of course we would find a mud mound you can just walk up and over with ease, so the trudge through bushes was completely unnecessary).
After we got about halfway around and had reached the train crossing, stopping there to take some photos, I kept hearing a weird noise, and kept looking around but couldn't work out what this noise was, after hearing it 3 or 4 times, i turned and saw 3 other people all crouched hiding in a window making noises at me and my pal. At this point we got talking a decided to just team up and do the rest of the site together. (These guys being local, had been here before and so they showed us around this day). Crossing the train track we go into these other big buildings, as we walk to one end, and start to turn around we hear two more voices coming from the doorway where we entered the building, with minimal light and these two other people wearing what looked like hi vis we tried to hide and look for another way out.
Luckily it turned out that I think, it was just boyfriend and girlfriend and what we thought was hi vis clothing from the distance in the dark was her slightly orange dress and his slightly orange puffa jacket. We stopped, said hello, and carried on. (At this point it was starting to feel like a bloody open house haha)
Nearing the end, the guys we met showed us the last couple of things we might have missed, so we went and checked those out and then headed for the exit... following these guys out is when we realized we didn't need to trudge through those bushes... oh well!
I've got about 200 something photos from this one... so I don't want to drown you in pictures so I'll try to keep the pictures to a minimum...
The first main building we entered, think this one is quite easy to miss if you don't have a proper look..
Near the chimneys..
Do love a bit of DECENT graffiti
Where's the rest of it?
The Crossing,, (which trains still use... and the barriers do not work, lol)
We've all got that one mate on a night out...
Thanks for looking
