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Sunday 31 August 2014

Accrington Conservative Club - August 2014

We hadn't gone to see this place, every time I had ever popped by it was sealed up, we had simply wanted to park the cars and bloody hell it was wide open and shouting at us to come in.

Urban Spaceman would be gutted, by hey grasp an opportunity with both hands and so we did, myself, Judderman and the one only known as ZerO81.

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This grand building is Accrington Conservative Club, the largest in the United Kingdom, within this Grade II listed building is a grand ball room that once held 1000 guests. Built in 1890 it sits rotting, neglected and fire damaged.

It is death on a stick, so we decided to take a look as you do and I present the "best bits" for your delectation.

First off we have a mere sample of some of the eek bits....

The first one you go have to navigate to advance to your final goal.

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Now that is what I call a fart !

Up to the ball room and main bar area.
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Oh, big boards cover big holes with a big drop.
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The ball room, despite being open to the elements is in pretty good condition and at the stage end of the ball room is a staircase which is safe, photogenic but sadly won't get you down to the exit so the only way out is the way you came up.

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Spooky attic time.
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A look back at the ball room and its time to take your time to slowly and ever so carefully walk the plank of death and rotting floors and staircases.
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Ground floor was major derp and we made our exit to live another day, just.

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A death trap with hidden beauty, 7/10.

Photos later used in a Daily Mail article

Wednesday 20 August 2014

Festa Vale Hotel, Marfa, Malta - August 2014

Mrs Hunter had booked us a holiday to Malta.

I kept driving past this place, poking out of the trees and bushes a top of a hill, winking at me. Was it ??? Oh yes a disused hotel built into a hillside slowly being enveloped by trees.

Time for a wander.

A walk in the tea time heat up to the Saint Agatha's Tower, known as the Red Tower it sits on the Mellieha Ridge above Mellieha and Marfa, Malta.

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The tower was shut, but not to worry as I hadn't trudged up the steep hill to see the tower, my destination was a little below Saint Agatha's in the bushes.

Going off some of the graffiti in the hotel it had been abandoned since at least 2000, and I have only found one reference to it by name being Festa Vale Hotel, very little information is to be found on this place other than reference to the "abandoned holiday complex" or "abandoned hotel".

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At first glance around the place it wasn't of much interest, in fact it was a little bit shit

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 and then I kept on walking down to a lower level of the hotel for a present surprise and suddenly things got interesting with a covered swimming pool area.

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Back out into the heat to the outdoor pool area I wandered with the sweat streaming down my back I pottered slowly toward the main hotel block

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A huge staircase down into the hotel from the pool area had been filled in with rubble, so I wandered a little further to enter through a hole in the wall of a corridor to find a darkened stepped passage down into the bowels of the hotel or was it up? The terrain was all getting a little confusing and the steps of the darkened corridor led up. It was at this point a rather large (or rather larger than I wanted) snake shot past me and thankfully it was gone before my arse had stopped twitching - turns out the snakes of Malta are harmless I should add.
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More hotel bedrooms more graf
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The light was failing, it was time to leave before the bad boys and village idiots turned up.....
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A few wrong turns in the maze and I was out, I'm sure I must have missed some of the place as I didn't find kitchens or the dining rooms, bar area etc - but I was out and out of water, sweating like a pig it was time for home.

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8/10 - extra points for holiday derp and an arse clenching snake encounter.

Saturday 16 August 2014

Wied Musa Battery, Malta - August 2014

Mrs Hunter booked a holiday to Malta and look what we find next to our hotel. I couldn't not go in, every time I came out the door of our hotel it winked at me.

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Built in 1714 this gun battery sits on the beach opposite the Riviera Hotel in Marfa, Malta. The Wied Musa Battery is a lot bigger than compared to others in the area and has been further extended for use as a governors residence and in later years use as a hotel, the rather grandly named Marfa Palace Hotel.

No acrobatics required a simple walk in, on with the photos.

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6/10 - being honest not a lot to see, but holiday derp always gets extra points - however the the next spot I found was a cracker....




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