Poultry Research Station

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Rubex

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In 1947 The Veterinary Educational Trust purchased Houghton Grange and adjacent farms to build a Poultry Research Station which later opened in 1948 when the first director of the Houghton Poultry Research Station was appointed.

Please watch this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leHMlXKo85E

Altogether the site consists of 33 labs. The Research Station researched a number of poultry related diseases and had departments dedicated to Parasitology, Avian Salmonella, and Egg Research to name a few.

The Research Station founded a strain of Eimeria Tenella, called the Houghton Strain, in 1949 which was used to study the eimerian life cycle and its relationship with the host. It has also been used to investigate the nature of drug resistance.

Also studied was the effect of increased Sodium in the drinking water on right ventricular hypertrophy, right ventricular failure and ascites in broiler chickens. Here is the summery of the report:

"One hundred commercial male broiler chickens were grown to 27 days in four floor pens on a commercial diet containing 0.14% sodium (Na+). From day 6 each pen received different levels of sodium chloride (NaCl) in the drinking water; 0.0%, 0.15% (0.06% Na+), 0.3% (0.12% Na+) and 0.6% (0.24% Na+). Eight chicks from each group were killed at 13, 20 and 27 days and examined for right ventricular hypertrophy (RVH) and right ventricular failure (RVF). By day 27 as little as 0.06% added Na+ caused two cases of RVH and one case of RVF with ascites, typical of the ascites caused by RVF in commercial broilers. RVH, RVF and ascites developed earlier in broilers on higher levels of Na+."

Here are a few job listings, and the wages you could expect to earn. Personally I think I'd make a good Land Girl:



As this is a 100 acre site I visited over a few weeks. This is in my town so whenever I had a spare few hours I'd come for a wander down here on my own and always find something new! I can't say I've particularly enjoyed the things I have seen here (maybe because I'm more of an animal person than a people person), but the place is still quite intriguing.











After seeing UrbanX's report of the place from 2010 I have always wanted to find "Laboratory X" and I finally found it!! If my face wasn't covered by a P3 mask you'd see how happy I was! But on a serious note, the place is very dusty and there is a lot of asbestos about which you have to climb over so one is advised to wear the relevant protection.



These labs are considerably different from the rest. Before entering the main corridor you had to pass through a shower and also you had to pass through a shower before entering each lab. There was no external light into the labs, and each one had a viewing window looking in. There was 19 labs in total, all numbered. This excludes the last two which were considerably bigger and named "A" and "B". One thing that did strike me was how thick the doors were and the fact there was 3 locks on each door. Each lab was able to have its temperature individually controlled.





















This was directly on top of Laboratory X, showing the large filtration system:



The sign on the door for this fridge said "Conventional Eggs Only":



It may be my childish sense of humour but I couldn't stop laughing at this:















The post-mortem sink:



In one of the sheds were these metal cages, I'm presuming they were used to transfer the chickens. You can't really see from this picture but they were all in individual sections and no bigger than those used for battery hens:



I believe this was the egg storage room:













Thanks for looking,

Rubex
 
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Wow, you've seen loads more of this place
and what a comprehensive report.
got a dark history this place, And those labs are quite sinister

good work MDear :)
 
Wow, you've seen loads more of this place
and what a comprehensive report.
got a dark history this place, And those labs are quite sinister

good work MDear :)

Thanks so much Wombat! I tried really hard with this report and pics! Do you not fancy coming up and taking another look at the place lol I could give you the guided tour :)
 
Great report that and glad you masked up and stayed safe...

Thanks HughieD! I'm definitely glad I had the P3 mask. The labs had a strange smell about them, plus there was so much broken asbestos everywhere which couldn't really be avoided!
 
Great set rubex..hope I get to see this place one day
 
We tried getting in here, but failed :D Nicely done! Haunting kind of place. You didn't get yelled at over the megaphone then? :p The hardware here is OTT!

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We tried getting in here, but failed :D Nicely done! Haunting kind of place. You didn't get yelled at over the megaphone then? :p The hardware here is OTT!

98% of the labs are accessible without being detected if you know the right way to go. As for the manor, like you say, it is OTT! Just walking up to take the picture and I started hearing the cameras buzzing and what sounded like what should have been a siren coming from the speakers but it was all muffled like it was rain damaged. But I carried on taking my pics and no one came :)
 
enjoyed that and the film link was a bonus,especilly the Field Marshall crawler tractor going past

That's a cool little tractor! I also saw this on the site and wondered if it was anything to do with the mobile laboratory in the video. I'm probably wrong but hopefully someone might have an idea as to what it is :)

 
98% of the labs are accessible without being detected if you know the right way to go. As for the manor, like you say, it is OTT! Just walking up to take the picture and I started hearing the cameras buzzing and what sounded like what should have been a siren coming from the speakers but it was all muffled like it was rain damaged. But I carried on taking my pics and no one came :)

I wonder why though? We had a look through the windows of the manor and it was being stripped out, I suppose maybe someone bought it? Haha yeah we heard the buzz of the tannoy and we were standing under one of the dome camera's in it's blind spot and it was quickly swivelling left to right trying to catch us out running away :D Good times. Will have to go back and have another mooch at some point. Great report, enjoyed it :)
 
Cor what a place! Nice report. I like the sound of the history on this place. Cracking photos! As it's such a big site do you have any more photos?
 
Good lord, I forget the first time I set foot there.. Bloody ages ago, forgot all about it although I go to Wyton once a month and drive past it. Thanks for the great snaps and putting it out there again... Good stuff.
 

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