Bankside Mill, Manchester - June 2013

A mooch with Jdub, who found this place as he went twitching one fine day or whatever he does with that rather large lens of his.

Can't find much on this place history wise, a rather ugly metal clad stone mill, previously occupied by a sewing thread manufacturer now awaiting demolition for housing.

On with the pics, for what they are worth.

 

 

 

 

 Deceptively large open space of nothingness, with odd bits of memories of happier times scattered around the place. The metal fairies had been in,  but as empty buildings awaiting demolition go it wasn't in bad condition to be honest.





 





We killed a hour, it had nothing of interest for me and sadly my snaps sadly reflect my lack of enthusiasm for the place, but it was on the doorstep.


 

Camelot Theme Park - June 2013

Back to some Urbex, its been a few weeks since we had a good little mooch.

We all like a closed theme park, something unnatural about a closed theme park, a bit too quiet and no smell of overpriced popcorn and hotdogs - its all a bit "Scooby Doo".

Sadly for us in the UK we don't have that many open theme parks, never mind closed -  but this one used to be the magical word of Camelot was just round the corner from me - so off we shot in the Mystery Machine.

Being just round the corner the I'd visited Camelot many times over the years with the kids, a small theme park based around the legend of King Arthur (I suspect you had worked that one out for yourself to be honest) it was a good day out for those on a budget - but it just needed to be a little bigger with a few more rides I personally thought to myself on those hot summers days many years ago.

The park opened in 1983 and finally closed to the public at the end of 2012.

Visited with Urban Spaceman and the Tin Dog on a strangely warm summers day, given the site is about 140 acres we thought we would do some homework and refresh our memories of the site pre-visit.

With our reconnaissance consisting of an episode of Sooty found on Youtube, a vague glance at some old Camelot maps found on a theme park website off we shot - scroll along to about 9 minutes 30 to glance an idea of the place in its former glory. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY_Z30TY_xQ


 





It was off to the Dragon Flyer, possibly the worlds only diesel powered coaster in the world.

- I should add the place was awash with fellow photographers of derp




 


Then a wander round the Dungeons of Doom, I've always wanted a wander round a ghost train and sadly this one was just a little bit poo.
 
 

Eerie sounds from the roller coaster Knightmare, the structure creaking as the sun heated up the structure.






All in all, a cracking few hours, sad to see this place go myself and in a few weeks it will be gone.



We then jumped in the plane at a later date and well this was the result

Copyright 2013 Fragglehunter /Sleepyg

Do not reproduce in whole or part without permission of the Copyright holder.

Photo theft - taking on the big boys

So your looking at my blog or Flickr and you like my photographs ? Well I hope you do, but you wouldn't want to steal them would you ?? Surely not ???

Now I freely admit that I'm not the best photographer in the world, hopefully not the worst, but in May of this year it came to my attention that a certain global sports company had taken upon itself to use some of my pictures via Twitter, Facebook and their company blog.

My main first issue was my photographs had been ripped off and placed on this companies own servers, the second the cost to myself of taking the pictures, thirdly the time and effort I put in to take them - simply to have them ripped off without being consulted or asked. I could go on and on and on but simply put it just should not have happened.

So before you do steal/use or whatever you want to call it, ask me, as I stated to the American lawyers "I am not an ogre, but I just won't be stepped on".

An out of court settlement was made to myself running into thousands of dollars, including a payment to a cancer charity of my choice, so as I have previously stated, please, please, please don't steal my pictures - ask.

I have regularly allowed my photos to be used with and without charge, sometimes with a small donation to a local cancer charity.

So if you want to get in contact, simply click on a picture and send me a message thru Flickr - it avoids the car crash that ensues after the theft of my hard work.

Thank you for reading - just message me.


 

Urbex in the News

Every so often I post few links of stuff that turns up in press and the odd website link I stumble across.

First off The Daily Mail get all excited with "Hitler's Hospital" with some nice pictures, but sadly The Daily Mail is still flirting with HDR that makes my efforts look amazing.

It's a wtf !??! from Curbed

And back to The Daily Mail again with some fresh and not so fresh pictures of abandoned places

- What does interest me are the pictures from Buzludzha, as we have a forthcoming trip planned and the old Bulgarian Communist looks amazing.

East Lancs Railway 1940's Wartime Weekend

What does £2., two shiny English Pounds, buy you these days ?????

Well it buys you a platform ticket for the East Lancashire Railway for the day and with free parking at the Ramsbottom and Rawtenstall Stations that we visited on the Sunday.

Urban Spaceman was in his leathers playing with is big boy bike and Pugwash grounded with the plane in Greenland (yes the country) it was off to sunny Ramsbottom.

Now I'm not a train spotting type of chap, but the Wartime Weekend was well worth the short ride in the car from Bolton to meet up with Judderman and ZerO 81 for a bit of non Urbexy stuff and some idle banter.

With clothing of the era and battle re-enactments a cracking few hours of photo opportunities was had.


 
 
 
 




 



Sorry, not a train to be seen, perhaps next time.....

Liwa Desert - May 2013

"Where do, you fancy going Friday? Your Shout"

Bit of a cheeky reply from myself, but you have to ask, "I wouldn't mind a spot of lunch at the Liwa Hotel".

With a very surprising swift answer of yes, a round trip of just of 240 km was required from our base in  Abu Dhabi, I had previously visited Liwa Desert and another visit was a must, England is a bit short of deserts so sad Englishmen like me get a little overexcited about sand and heat (we have a lack of that in England as well).

Well that was that, well it wasn't to be honest, the whole trip to Abu Dhabi was a payback to the family for me buggering off to Chernobyl and a bit of guilt for a yet unannounced trip planned for later this year. Even on a family trip you need a bit of non beach type stuff, so this was my day.

A hotel is hotel and I'm sure you don't want me to turn into a food critic, but for what its worth, the Liwa is on top of a big hill on the edge of the desert, lunch is a buffet, they don't sell alcohol until about 5pm on a Friday - lunch is about £25 per person but its literally the only place to eat.

Enough of the waffle, on with the pics.







 



An this one is for everyone who says I only do derp and graf
 

 and then it was back to Abu Dhabi for a cheeky cider.............



Thanks to the Chemist for driving and a cracking day out (again!!!).

Stevenson Square, Manchester - April 2013

Another return trip to Manchester, for the next chapter in the Outhouse Project of Stevenson Square, Manchester.

 

 

 

 

 






Bit of a mad dash, an hour to spare before I fled the country I wandered up to a strangely very quiet Northern Quarter, even for a Sunday the streets where empty, apart from some scaffolders busily doing what scaffolders do.


 





Until the next visit...