University of Derby High Peak Campus - July '09

[Apopcalyptic]

Morning all,

This place has been on my radar for a long, long time now. I seem to spend an awful lot of time on the A515 between Manchester and Leicestershire, and everytime I pass Harpur Hill I have to drive through, and ogle this vast site. After a false start (a day early ), this visit took place with Jimba, ekp09 and KingofDerby and was sponsored by the letter 'G'.

Nothing could prepare us for the size of the site. We've already made a second visit, and to see everything a third will definitely be required.

Formerly the 'High Peak College', the site was integrated into The University of Derby at some point in the '90s. It became the 'Harpur Hill campus', with each building named after some of the Peak District's most beautiful dales. In 2005 with a replacement campus built in the centre of Buxton, the campus was closed, silently decaying to become what you see here today.

The starting point - We believe this building to be Sports Administration. It's labelled 'The Ashwood Dale Building'.

The very prospectus from my sig... lol

These security lights are long since dead.

I can't be the only one compelled to stick their head through a hole in the wall right......?

Some clever dick has managed to tag the ceiling between the cavity walls....

From here we headed to the Halls of Residence - All was very samey in here so not an awful lot to show :

Grass growing inside. This is the ground floor, but the upper floors were the same.

The owner of this container won't be happy. It should have been returned years ago.

This corridor took us towards the main administration building, the refectory and library.

The library is possibly the most trashed room we saw. Evidence of the pipes being removed is throughout.

Looking up to the Library.

Next we ambled to the Art block. Amazingly whole rooms are essentially untouched. Student's artwork remains, forgotten. (it's here that I realise I have no rooms shots.... d'oh)

This incredible bag from an old bike tyre suited KoD so well he's going to make another

'Your Route to Success' - Only the 'Y' should be capitalised...

Our final view before departing.

 

[Apopcalyptic]

Our second visit took place a few days later. It soon became clear that we weren't going to be getting in in a hurry. Disappointed, we wandered up the hill that Harpur Hill is famous for.

Our disappointment quickly became astonishment : A tropical lagoon... in the heart of the Peaks?!

Time passed. We went 'elsewhere' (pics to follow . And then, we returned. Time was marching on, but we were determined to get some more value out of our day. We found that our early exit point had been sealed (curses!), but fortunately our original access point had not(w00t!).
We scooted towards the science block.

The classrooms were mostly stripped...

...apart from a CFP Kymograph & Stimulator (ekp09 got excited...lol)...

...but it was the lab prep. room that interested us most.
The Emma ][ Computer!

A resistor of some description(!?)

Chemical bottles.

Racist scum.

Other explorers or scrubs, we're not sure. They were banging and generally drawing a lot of attention to themselves, so we assume scrubs. Either way, they were trying to scare us. Time was marching on anyway, so off we trotted leaving the scrubs in our wake.

Thanks for reading, and I'm sure Jimba will be along presently to post her pics

 

[Neosea]

A resistor of some description(!?)

It's a transformer.

 

[Apopcalyptic]

It's a transformer.

Thanks for that
I wasn't sure. Given that ohm is the unit of resistance, I thought it could have been a resistor. ;p

 

[fezzyben]

Good stuff. its a shame it has got so trashed since i last went. The libary was reasonably untrashed back then

 

[Apopcalyptic]

Good stuff. its a shame it has got so trashed since i last went. The libary was reasonably untrashed back then

Thanks. We found that between our two visits (a matter of days), the library, reception and refectory had become significantly more trashed

The art block is still relatively untouched, though right through the corridors the ceiling tiles have been ripped out to get at the pipes.

 

[Neosea]

Thanks for that
I wasn't sure. Given that ohm is the unit of resistance, I thought it could have been a resistor. ;p

Wiki, Have fun.

 

[ImmortalShadow]

I'll be adding my photo's as soon as I get back to Derby which'll be on Thursday.

 

[johno23]

Nice to see another angle on this old place,you found some interesting items.Its decidedly more trashed since we went last year,especially the library.What a waste,its about time they did something with this site now!!!!.

 

[ImmortalShadow]

These are some of my photo's from a great day (photo's of the second day will follow once I've sorted them out).

The first place we went to, the main corridor.

We found these in a box in the corridor...

I was amazed at how much stuff was left in this filing cabinet, mainly fractions worksheets.

ZAP!

We saw this sign just before we were about to leave this building, it was amusing as we saw this AFTER I'd cut myself (my first urbex-related injury).

The second place we went - halls of residence.

Trashed room of somesort with a leaking ceiling!

Bunkbeds in a room. This seemed strange to me and ekp09 as we're used to the halls rooms in the halls of residence in Derby, which only have one bed per room, but apparently, on the application/preference forms, there was a tick box for in you wanted to share a room.

Can you hear the plastic?!

These were the floor plans for the Devonshire Royal Campus, the site which is now used by University of Derby Buxton, after this site closed.

Random photo's from inside the refrectory/cafeteria.

Views from the roof (not many as we didn't want to be seen )

We found the Photography department, these photo's are of the inside of the darkroom. So amazing to see things left over such as chemicals etc. All of the bulbs had gone from the enlargers.

The Art department! Lots of fun took place here, including trying on random masks.

Something that all urbexers should do!

Incredible to see how much work is still around.

Moving into other rooms away from the Art department, we came across some of these things which brought back memories!

Random corridor.

Thanks for looking, hope you like! Second visit photo's coming very soon

 

[ImmortalShadow]

As promised, here are the photo's from the second visit that took place. (As Apopcolyptic said, a third visit will most certainly have to happen to see the rest). As KingofDerby couldn't make it, JCB Man took his place.

Anyways, this was the site that greeted us when we first arrived at the college/campus...

We thought the worst had happened but couldn't see any signs of smoke, so turned around and went up a hill to a "lagoon" that had been recommended to us by james.s (thanks!).

On the way, we came across some burnt cars.

The view of High Peak Campus from the top of the hill (or close to the top).

After going "elsewhere", we went back to High Peak Campus, and to our relief, the fire engines had gone. Onto the Science block!

But first...some batteries.

And NOW to the Science block.

The Science prep room, but I didn't take many photo's in here, I think Apopcalyptic got more than me.

Close-up of dials on a TV we came across!

Left-over work on a wall.

Coloured drawers!

Books on the floor, you could probably get a few quid for these!

Glass with lettering on.

And now, I present you with photo's that didn't seem to fit anywhere.

"WWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!"

I recognise these names from somewhere

Thanks again for looking

 

[Bammo]

These are TOTALLY wonderful, I studied here in 91-93 and had to go visit yesterday after seeing some other pics. Didn't have the guts to go inside but so wish I had now!!! Great work guys

 

[Lost Explorer]

These are TOTALLY wonderful, I studied here in 91-93 and had to go visit yesterday after seeing some other pics. Didn't have the guts to go inside but so wish I had now!!! Great work guys

Is there much left? Might go over and take a look!

 

[killergibbo]

has this places been flatten yet then?

 

[diehardlove]

Is there much left? Might go over and take a look!

yes buts its pretty facked now,as you only live 2 streets over give me a text when you go or more to the point when you get rid of the family

 

[smileysal]

that place looks in a bad state nowadays. :'( It wasn't too bad when we went last year, no the year before 08 lol. I don't supose you got in the Travel and Tourism block did you? I keep meaning to go back and have a look in there, and the hairdressing salon, those are the places we've missed.

A friend of mine used to go here years ago, and did the catering course, so when we went gave her a copy of all the pics from the rooms and kitchens she used to be in. She loved her time there, so was shocked at what it was like on our visit. She'd be really shocked if she saw the place now then.

Good to see the names still up on the white board.

Excellent pics guys, I like High Peak.

Sal