Wrapping up my what now is my final flight I took a spin over Sheffield with my intrepid pilot, Pugwash.
I've fallen in love with Sheffield over the last year with it's wonderful street art and the many derelict industrial sites ripe for urban exploration - so time for some aerial photography.
Now I'm not a football fan, but I do like a stadium, first off Hillsborough famous to many for all the wrong reasons.
Obviously we had to snap Bramall Lane
Then the now derelict William Stones Cannon Brewery, which I had pottered round a few months before.
A little mooch on my doorstep, having gone for a look at Peel Mill we took a little mooch at this long forgotten dead factory.
Having closed around 2003, this place has been stripped, torched and is now used as a drugs den and graffiti house.
Jdub and myself parked up and entered only to be followed by a couple of low lives, but they thankfully kept themselves to themselves so we bimbled on, should add the offices (or what was) are littered with discarded syringes.
Having previously flown over Whittingham Asylum I decided to have mooch, so Urban Spaceman and myself decided to brave the bank holiday traffic.
Here's a bit of info
Whittingham Hospital, whose grounds adjoin the village of Goosnargh,
grew to be the largest mental hospital in the country, and pioneered the
use of electroencephalograms (EEGs). During its time it had its own
church, farms, railway, telephone exchange, post office, reservoirs, gas
works, brewery, orchestra, brass band, ballroom and butchers.
In 1866, the three Lancashire lunatic asylums at Prestwich, Rainhill and
Lancaster were deemed to be full. The building of Whittingham Asylum
began in 1869, originally to accommodate 1000 patients. It was built
from brick made from clay dug on site from a pit which later became a
fish pond.
The hospital officially opened on 1 April 1873. The large site included
an Anglican church, a Catholic chapel, a recreation hall (also used as a
ballroom) and several farms. The site closed in 1995 and now sits slowly rotting in development hell.
Welcome to the asylum !!!!
The whole place is overgrown, slowly rotting, trees growning from chimneys, bushes swallowing whole buildings - buzzing with bees.
This place was so peaceful, I think any return visit will involve a macro lens as the insects and butterflies are everywhere. The variety of birds was amazing, rabbits everywhere and I even had a field mouse run over my foot.
Ok, ok, more info - first off I don't normally do this sponsorship stuff, I prefer to give than get involved.
But it's like this, when I was a kid my mum's friend lived up the street, my mum's friend often did me some soup for lunch - but the soup was boiled not simmered, but it didn't matter coz they had a tortoise.
Jon (her son, not the tortoise) has kind of popped in and out of my life for years and over the last 14 months or so i've been out flying with him armed with my cameras - all the time he's been putting together his plan to single handedly fly round our little planet without being shot down as a Drone.
His attempts at his trip of madness have been delayed by fatherhood, armed conflicts, nuclear disaster and various problems with paperwork - in the meantime I was plotting.....
Last year I watched a cracking documentary on BBC2, The Real Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, these guys where bonkers - I wanted to do it, I needed to do it....
"teams of obsessive microlight enthusiasts who
navigate their way across Britain armed with a map and compass, sleeping
under the wing, and doing their best to keep their aircraft in one
piece - while at the same time clocking up more miles than everyone
else".
That's not us in the video by the way - just in case you thought I'd lost my stunning good looks.
Roll on on June 2012 & Jon messages, I need a navigator - "we plot a line on a map, allow for wind, fly the heading and spot features that help us figure out if we are still in the right county..."
Ok, ok now for the money bit - Jon already has a Just Giving page and it makes sense to keep that ball rolling, so all donations will go directly to The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, helping to make a real difference, to improve the care,
treatment, support & facilities they can offer, along with funding
pioneering research into cancer treatment. Oh don't forget the Gift Aid - your way of getting the Taxman to put his hand in his pocket on your behalf.
Rest assured photos galore and the odd video clip, but most of all I am going to be pushed out of my comfort zone for your pleasure.
Oh, the tortoise, he's not coming and I'm useless at navigation (but don't tell Jon as he wanted the tortoise to come).
