Wenford Dries, Cornwall - May 2018

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Landie_Man

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As part of another backlog of our West Country Trip, @Mookster, our American Explorer Friend @cgrizzy and myself traveled to this rather derpy site. It's one of the list but little of interest remains inside; though its quite large, with long concrete voids with some pretty good Graffiti in places.

Not much was going on inside; except some kids with a makeshift skate park in the middle who seemed slightly suprised to spot us. There is some really cool shots of nature reclaiming in here; lots growing everywhere and areas have collapsed.

The Dries in Wenford were built in the early part of the 20th century (likely post-1907) to serve the local china clay pit at Stannon on Bodmin Moor.

China Clay in liquid form was carried in a pipeline from the pit to the settling tanks behind the dries.

The dries operated until the final closure in 2002 (aside from a brief closure during WWII). The works were originally built by the Stannon China Clay Company, but were acquired by English China Clays in 1919. The choice of site was heavily influenced by the presence of an existing railway line leading from Wenford Bridge which was originally constructed to carry granite from the nearby De Lank quarries. The dry was built adjacent to the railway line and a large private siding was built to connect to the network.

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More At:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/landie_man/albums/72157701301733375
 
Nice one! Loving natures reclamation of this one! Cracking set of photos as always!
 
Interesting to see an update here - if you were into china clay, the dryers at Par Docks and Burngullow had much more kit left a few years back, but Wenford felt much more "back to nature". Nice piece from Koeone as well. :)
 
Interesting to see an update here - if you were into china clay, the dryers at Par Docks and Burngullow had much more kit left a few years back, but Wenford felt much more "back to nature". Nice piece from Koeone as well. :)

The modern dryers at Burngullow which people visited were demolished a few years ago but the older dries and the other newer ones to the east which weren't fully explored are still there, though mostly stripped and partly used for storage. The dryers at Par Docks have also been partly demolished internally, but the filter-presses and buell drums are still there.
 
Interesting, cheers - I had a look around parts of the older and newer dries at Burngullow in 2012, but Par Docks was the highlight - at that point, the dryers were more or less intact as demolition had only just started. The quality of light inside the buildings was wonderful, very soft and shadowless thanks to all the china clay diffusing the light.
 

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