Westfield Development Centre, Fife, June 2018

Derelict Places

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ant37

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Hi everyone.

Thanks for making me feel welcome,here is my first report on derelict places, hope you enjoy!

History.
Has been done a few times before so I'll do a condensed version.
The site first was first active from 1960 to 1974 using poor quality coal to make gas at cheaper rate than was possible at the time. This came to and end when Scottish houses were converted to use North Sea gas in 1973.
There have been a few different owners over the years, including some experimenting Americans, though I'm not 100% sure on what these experiments were.
In 1992 a gas turbine was built, though the majority of coal mines in Scotland had been shut at this time so it was a bit of a fruitless endeavour.
Purchased by SSE in 2004, then in 2006 the gasification process was used to look at ways of reducing waste and increasing energy outputs.
The site eventually closed in 2011.

I was really looking forward to this one, the reports I had seen made it look incredible, plenty to see and very little change.

We were met with disappointment straight off the bat, the main gates were open, there were sounds of crunching metal and a crane towards the back of the site.

The majority of the site had been flattened, all the nice pipe work had gone. All that was left was the guard hut, a burnt out office block and the labs which were a total goldmine, especially to the wee guy in there pinching scrap metal and anything else he could find.
The lab was great to look around, lots of interesting sounding chemicals and plenty of nice equipment. According to the wee guy that "wisny really intae the copper" his pal had told him some of the equipment was going for over £4,000 on ebay but he "wisny really intae the internet" either.

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This was in a cupboard marked "Poisons" above some actual cyanide, I couldn't believe, it was kind of worrying that antidote B was nowhere to be seen.

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Here is a link to an album containing all my pics from the day
https://photos.app.goo.gl/axFY9ZEsE1kaDiL67

Thanks for looking!
 
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You've at least been able to see in the labs before they disappear, good effort. Nice to see there's still some stuff left to look at.
 
Nice one, well done getting a look around labs - sometimes they're accessible, at other times they're sealed. You probably met Scotland's friendliest copper recycler in there - he's been on site to welcome me each time I've visited Westfield!

As for the rest of the site, looks like they're (finally) making quick work of clearing the Lurgi plant and power station, after years of dereliction.
 
'This was in a cupboard marked "Poisons" above some actual cyanide, I couldn't believe, it was kind of worrying that antidote B was nowhere to be seen.'

Not worrying at all - if you had swallowed cyanide you would be partly unconscious before you could open A and B and drink the antidote. Working with and handling cyanide products was all part of my working life (testing cyanide based plating chemicals and plating bath solutions) and you never worked alone with with cyanide containing mixtures - common sense really. Anyway; one should never touch any bottles of chemicals one finds in these 'abandoned' labs. Labels fall off, idiots mix things about and stuff gets spilt. I am fortunate that I am in that very small percentage of the human population; that can actually smell very small concentrations of Cyanide in the air, or in cyanide containing compounds A God's send in my old occupation!

These are images of a bog standard 'scientific services laboratory' that are/were attached to many manufacturing sites, effluent management labs, Power Stations, coal mines, Rail Networks etc,etc. Scientific glass ware has hardly altered since Victorian times, the same cannot be said about instrumentation - Your brand new purchase will probably be outdated or an updated version be on the assembly line before the manufacturer has installed it in your laboratory - which is why quoted stupid second hand values are just that, bloody stupid and why stuff just gets left!!
 
Brewtal and myself were also too late to make it here whilst the big pipes were alive so group hug:cry:best not remind yourself of what you missed, mikeymutts report will hurt:hopelessness:
 
Brewtal and myself were also too late to make it here whilst the big pipes were alive so group hug:cry:best not remind yourself of what you missed, mikeymutts report will hurt:hopelessness:

On the plus side, you guys did miss the nerve-wracking security at Westfield while it was still partly active, I narrowly missed being caught a couple of times when the Lurgi plant was derelict but the gas turbine power station was mothballed. The security guy in the Land Rover was a constant presence in the compound…
 
On the plus side, you guys did miss the nerve-wracking security at Westfield while it was still partly active, I narrowly missed being caught a couple of times when the Lurgi plant was derelict but the gas turbine power station was mothballed. The security guy in the Land Rover was a constant presence in the compound…

Aye Billy was telling me stories of how things used to be there. He is a legend, I loved meeting him. He showed me the video of him at the top of the chimney, he climbed up with a hand soap bottle full of red paint in one sock, paint brush in the other, all so he could paint his name in big letters at the top. I’m pretty sure prettyvacant71 couldn’t understand a word we were saying at the time! He also told me he rescued the photographs and gave them to local businesses because he couldn’t bare to see them get lost in the demolition. Met a few of the other lads too, really nice bunch. They were more than happy to move out of our shots because we stayed out of their way. Quite a surreal experience after such a horribly early start to get Harbour Chambers done, but a great way to end the day.
 
Have these labs gone then now?

Not sure if they are gone yet, they will need a specialist decontamination team in due to the nature of the chemicals, and the asbestos. I’m sure this place is a mess by now, they got all they could from the main part and they only have the labs left for scrap now.
 
Aye Billy was telling me stories of how things used to be there. He is a legend, I loved meeting him. He showed me the video of him at the top of the chimney, he climbed up with a hand soap bottle full of red paint in one sock, paint brush in the other, all so he could paint his name in big letters at the top. I’m pretty sure prettyvacant71 couldn’t understand a word we were saying at the time! He also told me he rescued the photographs and gave them to local businesses because he couldn’t bare to see them get lost in the demolition. Met a few of the other lads too, really nice bunch. They were more than happy to move out of our shots because we stayed out of their way. Quite a surreal experience after such a horribly early start to get Harbour Chambers done, but a great way to end the day.

Haha, did Billy tell you the story about the big pump? He was planning to pump out the cable tunnels under the Lurgi plant to see if he could find cables, not sure whether he ever succeeded but he had to acquire an oil filter first…

I got two-thirds up the chimney at the start of the year, but the holes at each level where the ladder passes through were a tight squeeze and and freezing rain was blasting in through the "windows". Nae fun.

Yep, the other metal recyclers were sound when we were there, first time I went they'd been raided by Fife Council/ police and had to leave their cars, so half a dozen bangers were parked randomly around the place.

ps. I drove past the site a couple of weeks ago en route to Kinross, it looked like the labs and burnt-out offices were still standing but demo guys were on site so I didn't take a closer look.
 
Fair play for giving the chimney a go! Nah he didn’t tell me about that, but it doesn’t surprise me. He did say he has started using dousing rods to find the last of the cables as they hoover up the remaining bits and bobs. Bet they have made a few quid out of there, especially the merchant they take it to!
 
Had to be attempted - the bottom ladder had been cut off, but the scrappers lashed some metal barriers together so we managed to scramble up - just like the chimney at Steetley Magnesite many years ago! Pity we chose a miserable sleety day for it … apparently there’s just a load of bird crap and a dead owl at the top so I didn't miss much.

Bet they have made a few quid out of there, especially the merchant they take it to!
I suspect so, and all non-deductable cash in hand as well…
 

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