As soon as this plan was hatched we knew it was total madness, but it had to be done. Very basically Holton Heath produced cordite for the military. It was in use at the start of world war one and closed very shortly after world war two. It had it fair share of death and was the scene of a few large explosions. For nearly seventy years now the site has lain dormant and rotting and what was once a fully functioning factory is now dense woodland full of inpenatrable vegetation and ten foot high gorse bushes ( Gods Barbed wire !!) So what better time to explore it than at night !!
As soon as we were over the fence it became apparant that this wasnt going to be easy and im sure that even Bear Grylls reaction would have been ' F**k that' !!! For those of an older generation Mr Grylls is like David Bellamy on acid !!!
Anyway on with the pics, the first of which is an easy to find mess building.
Now with the going getting a bit squelchier under foot its off to the control trench and the fire watchers post on top.
And underground - with all those fookin SPIDERS !!
Now off to what we came for, the press houses. This is where things went wrong. We basically couldnt find them. The terrain was now muddy and hilly and after many, many frustrating dead ends and retraced steps we finally found one. Totally flooded !! So on with the waders and in we go ............
By now the place was begining to take its toll on us and try though we might it proved impossible to locate the remaining buildings in the pitch black !! The annoying thing was we knew that they were very close but we just couldnt get to 'em. So we decided to try and find an easier prize - the former acid storage tank area by the large reservoirs. This wasnt too difficult - so .........
Here is acid ally ...
and the former tank supports
and lastly a pipe tunnel and support bracket caught in the beam ..
Well there you have it. All in all a totally buzzing explore with all of your senses on overload. But bloody hard work and bloody frustrating to be so close yet so far ...... but hey-ho, definately better than watching eastenders. Now all we have to do is find the way out .................
As soon as we were over the fence it became apparant that this wasnt going to be easy and im sure that even Bear Grylls reaction would have been ' F**k that' !!! For those of an older generation Mr Grylls is like David Bellamy on acid !!!
Anyway on with the pics, the first of which is an easy to find mess building.
Now with the going getting a bit squelchier under foot its off to the control trench and the fire watchers post on top.
And underground - with all those fookin SPIDERS !!
Now off to what we came for, the press houses. This is where things went wrong. We basically couldnt find them. The terrain was now muddy and hilly and after many, many frustrating dead ends and retraced steps we finally found one. Totally flooded !! So on with the waders and in we go ............
By now the place was begining to take its toll on us and try though we might it proved impossible to locate the remaining buildings in the pitch black !! The annoying thing was we knew that they were very close but we just couldnt get to 'em. So we decided to try and find an easier prize - the former acid storage tank area by the large reservoirs. This wasnt too difficult - so .........
Here is acid ally ...
and the former tank supports
and lastly a pipe tunnel and support bracket caught in the beam ..
Well there you have it. All in all a totally buzzing explore with all of your senses on overload. But bloody hard work and bloody frustrating to be so close yet so far ...... but hey-ho, definately better than watching eastenders. Now all we have to do is find the way out .................