RN Cordite factory Holton heath- May 09 (picture heavy)

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Newage

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Hi All

Well the travelling Newage & Fluffy (AKA Cockney boy)millitary site tours continues. This time off to sunny Dorset to vist the former Royal naval Cordite factory at Holton Heath so with the trusty 4X4 full of maps,
coffee and the sound of more AC/DC oh and as a special treat for Cockney boy 1 packet of Rainbow drops, well that's the food and drink sorted. Off we set form Oxfordshire to Dorcet about 2 hours.

Fluffy got the heads up on how to get in and his contact was spot on.

Holton heath was built to make Cordite for the RN during the first world war, the site was chosen in 1914.
As with any explosive factory it's away form populated areas and alll the building are sunken in to the grond or are under ground.

To make Cordite the process needs some nasty chemicals like concentrated Nitric acid, concentrated Sulphuric acid, Actone, Nitrocellulose, and the wonderfully safe Nitroglycerin all of which was made on the site, the process also needs vast amounts of water.

The Holton heath site is BIG (no not just BIG it's "E-F****** normus") we spent 7 hours in there and only saw about 1/3 of it. Most of the site has not been Chaved because the site is over grown, covered in Gorse and brambles and the Ants OMG the Ants......

The first building you get to is the boiler house

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Then on to a large building it looks like a mess building with showers and an out side blast wall with loop hole built in to it.

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There are blast shelter all over the place, and they are big most are doubles.as you can see from the picture on the left they are oval shaped.

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After these we made our way across the site to the reservoir, we came in from the back and it was a nightmare to get up the hill and through the gorse and brambles but when you see the place WOW.
The building on the right is the valve room and gives access to the under ground reservoir.

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Just had to try and use Fluffy's LASER pointer for some thing a little different. I thinks you can just read that it says NEWAGE.

Some of the larger building are very well hidden in the trees. But we did come across this, it's building P17

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Next was building P4, which was a press building and control center.

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After walking round and looking at many more under ground buildings we headed off to try and find the "fire watchers tower" Now that I've done some more research it's actually
called the control trench OP1.

You are just going to love this, oh baby.

This is the view from the top and the picture on the right is from inside the pixie house.

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You just know you want to know whats down that ladder....

Well.......

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These is an entrance at ground level, so you don't have to go down the ladder of DOOM!!!!!

Here are a few more pictures from around the site, they are in no type of order so enjoy.

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Well that's about it for now, well done if you got this far, sorry for all the pictures but the site is so big putting up 2 or 3 just does not do the place justice. as usual there are plenty more on my FlickR page at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/newage2/sets/72157618094995904/

Any comments are most welcome
Cheers Newage and Fluffy
 
Man, this place looks awesome, nice pics mate. The pixie pillbox goes underground?!! Wow! I gotta get myself down there! Im in bournemouth next weekend, if anybody has any ideas how I can ditch the mrs, (that don't involve a rope and concrete block) let me know!!
 
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Digital Noise,just send the missus shopping with your credit card..sorted.Mr Newage,I love this report and the way you write it..quite funny at times.Love those shelters.I have never heard of this place ,but now I am going wiki-ing.Many thanx for this one fella.
 
Nice photos.
I must admit this is one of my favorite sites as you tend to find something new every time you visit.
Shame about all the big ants and ticks though.
 
Awesome report. I love the fact that so much remains especially the control trench. Nice one
 
Lovely site, looks like a good day out !
Really want to live in that house with the round pointed roof ! :) Looks so sweet. Good report, well done.x
 
Interesting stuff - was the underground reservoir for water, or was it diesel? Other ordnance factories I've visited have had underground diesel tanks.

That tiling is amazing as well - I've never seen that before...
 
...as a special treat for Cockney boy 1 packet of Rainbow drops...

You can still buy those? Love them but haven't seen them for ages! :mrgreen:
Brilliant site! So many amazing things remaining. Didn't realise where it was until BTBM posted the link (ta, mate. :) ). A visit to Corfe Castle is on the cards at some point so if doable, I must get to see this site too.
Cheers. :)
 
HI Guys and Gals

Thanks for the comments, the site is so big that if you do go you will need to spend all day there.

As for the reservoir, it was for water and the main pumping house is some miles away form the site.
It is split in two parts, the pictures that I took are from the left side as you look at the valve room.

In the right hand side part the pillars are brick although they may be concrete with a brick outer skin.
When you look on Google earth the reservoir is the only visible part of the site, it is that overgrown.

Oh and Foxy you can still get Rainbow drops in our local CO-OP.

Cheers Newage
 
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Site plan

Hi All

Fluffy sent me this site plan, thought you all might like to see just how big the site was and still is.

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Go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/newage2/

and have a look at the full size picture BTW it's big.

Cheers Newage
 
Fantastic site guys, well done on the report & pics. I'm loving the pixie type shelter, quietly disguising what lies inside, awesome!
 
Normally these sort of sites don't really interest me, as they're just a lot of empty shells, but this looks incredible. There's so much to see, and I love those fascinating ladders and other nooks and crannies. Is there underground stuff too? I'd like to see this myself...
 
It's funny, I was talking about this with my son yesterday...it's so close to me & I've never been, I didn't realise it was so big myself. great pictures :)
 
Fan-dabby-dozy!

What a varied and interesting set of buildings & structures! :)

Loving all that glazed brickwork, the underground reservior, and that round pill box :cool:

Thanks for sharing!
 
Just to follow on from what Newage has already said,this place is amazing !!!! We spent seven hours in there and it was bloody hard work.i think i can easily say that this was the most physically demanding explore i have ever done (alright neither me nor him are proverbial spring chickens)BUT we were both absolutely knackered by the time we escaped !! The main prob is that all the buildings-as newage says- are in low lying areas and most have large blast mounds around them so every explore involves a near vertical scramble up and the a near vertical scramble down.This has got to be done on your feet,there is no copping out by sliding down on your arse cos when you see the ants that inhabit this place in their zillions believe me the last thing you want is to get these babies anywhere near you --let alone in your pants. !!!
All in all an absolutely amazing day out !! And if you like glazed bricks you'll love this place -there everywhere-and in superb condition !!
PS; Big respect goes to Bonecollector for the gen !!!
Here's a few more phots;
1.The ballcock and a half for LHS underground reservoir
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2.Shiney tiled bricks.
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3.Site location marker-presumably these were all over the site identifying every location,but this was the only one we found !!
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4.Entrance to a covered tiled buiding.
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5.Test date---retest now due !!
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6.Underground tunnel intersection.
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7.Water pump rooms ? Shrouded with a blast wall.

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Oh by the way Newage may have shown me the said packet of Rainbow Drops (Drool Drool)
BUT he never offered me any !!!!!
 
Top report!

We have been down there so many times i have lost count (its only 5 mins up the road) and thought we had seen 99.9% of it but have not come across the building P17, looks great, might have to try and find it sometime this week! Have not had a map so its just hunt around!

Also well done on the reservoir pics, the amount of dark photos i have of that place because i have found it quite hard to get a picture that shows the size of it! Hats off to you!
 

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