mr_bones
Gormless Moderator
With the sun at its best, and having not met up with Simon for quite some time, I got in touch on the spur of the moment to see if he was around for some exploring. After driving up to meet him and spending an evening propping up the local bar - Simon suggested that the next day, we should go and investigate what was left of Nocton Hall hospital. An aerial photo and Simons research revealed that the site consisted of a historical manor house which was very badly damaged by arson and a group of villas and makeshift buildings that formed the WW2 RAF hospital. There is some very useful info about the site on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocton_Hall . Simon had described a series of shelters and tunnels that were rumoured to still exist underneath parts of the manor house.
Upon (eventual) arrival in Nocton, a short walk (aided by local tourist information!) led us to the grand facade of the manor house. It was well and truly gutted but its presence was still grand and overpowering,
We followed the perimeter round and eventually slipped inside, a few rooms remained in tact but nothing that would identify it as an ancient structure, instead we were greeted by a modern kitchen!
With time pressing on, we headed down into the bowels of the building and it was immediately apparent that we were not just in a wine cellar, many signs and artifacts remained from a time where these tunnels were used as some sort of shelter and some of the doors were solid metal. We bumped into another group who were exploring the tunnels - apparently not even knowing the term 'urban exploration', just looking around for their own personal interest!
Still against the clock, Simon and I headed towards the main hospital complex - the other group tagged along! Once inside the grounds, we noticed how desolate and quickly 'thrown up' the buildings were, they had also got very overgrown in the few years they had been decomissioned.
The main corridor network appeared never ending, and with a colour coded system leading to each of the departments - simply labelled with a crude stencil.
Later on Simon stumbled upon a section of wall where the plaster was missing and it revealed the original hand painted signage that was still clearly legible and painted straight on to an unrendered surface.
swiftly working our way round the rest of the site we spotted the surgery, stumpy brick water tower, boiler house and many more spurs of never ending corridors and exited the site at main reception, noting how incredibly basic and drab the place must have been.
After we had left the hospital site, we walked around the rest of the manor house and discovered some great hidden corners that revealed a clock, and an information stone written in latin - any ideas?
All in all, a good day and an enjoyable mooch!
Upon (eventual) arrival in Nocton, a short walk (aided by local tourist information!) led us to the grand facade of the manor house. It was well and truly gutted but its presence was still grand and overpowering,
We followed the perimeter round and eventually slipped inside, a few rooms remained in tact but nothing that would identify it as an ancient structure, instead we were greeted by a modern kitchen!
With time pressing on, we headed down into the bowels of the building and it was immediately apparent that we were not just in a wine cellar, many signs and artifacts remained from a time where these tunnels were used as some sort of shelter and some of the doors were solid metal. We bumped into another group who were exploring the tunnels - apparently not even knowing the term 'urban exploration', just looking around for their own personal interest!
Still against the clock, Simon and I headed towards the main hospital complex - the other group tagged along! Once inside the grounds, we noticed how desolate and quickly 'thrown up' the buildings were, they had also got very overgrown in the few years they had been decomissioned.
The main corridor network appeared never ending, and with a colour coded system leading to each of the departments - simply labelled with a crude stencil.
Later on Simon stumbled upon a section of wall where the plaster was missing and it revealed the original hand painted signage that was still clearly legible and painted straight on to an unrendered surface.
swiftly working our way round the rest of the site we spotted the surgery, stumpy brick water tower, boiler house and many more spurs of never ending corridors and exited the site at main reception, noting how incredibly basic and drab the place must have been.
After we had left the hospital site, we walked around the rest of the manor house and discovered some great hidden corners that revealed a clock, and an information stone written in latin - any ideas?
All in all, a good day and an enjoyable mooch!
