Cathedral Quarry, Little Langdale - December 2013

A return to Cathedral Quarry, sometimes known as Cathedral Cave, located in Cumbria or as I know it The Lakes.

My last visits had been in the 1980s, usually over the Christmas period - been a long time and it didn't disappoint.

I'm trying to track down these old haunts, this hopefully is one of many from my list to mark off.



Trust me, believe the sign, the ford was flooded, as was the part of the lower road to Tilberthwaite.



So over the river via the bridge and up the hill brings you to Catherdral Quarry.

In these days of health and safety the signs simply say - be careful, now in the 80s the signs used to say "Keep Out", so in I went.



A dark damp hole in the ground, loved it and memories came flooding back of eating my lunch in this place every Christmas (not my Christmas dinner you understand, but usually over the Christmas holiday break).



 

 

Speaking of lunch, it was time to grab a sandwich and no sooner had I opened the my bag and this cheeky chap of a Robin landed inches from my food, a rather tame charmer of a bird.

 

We chatted, we ate, he posed (reading up on this little chap I now know he does hang about waiting for fools like me to pop into his lair and where upon he unleashes his pretty poses and bird like charms upon weary travelers) I snapped away.

 





 

With the time not on my hands, I decided to visit another old haunt and made the walk back to the car as the hail and sleet started to rush down the from the mountains.

Stevenson Square, Manchester - December 2013

As the throngs of Christmas shoppers descend on Manchester, a wander round the back streets of Manchester with a return visit to the Northern Quarter and an update on the Outhouse Project and the other gems in the surrounding streets.

With rather urbex'ee carparking (it was cheap) we parked in the arches under the train lines into Manchester Victoria, had it not been so busy it would have been ripe for a mooch.

- photo taken in the gloom with a Nokia Lumia 1020, no flash, no tripod.



A short walk with the hidden tunnels of the Manchester Cathedral  Steps, we headed for the Northern Quarter.







Wandering up Tib Street, firstly we come across a fresh doggie by Stewy



Again a selection of the ever changing street art of the Northern Quarter







 

and finally on to the Outhouse Project.

All this was sadly a little wasted on the Tin Dog, who had joined me for a potter round the back streets of Manchester, he doesn't "get it", adding that it wasn't bad and better than tagging in that a least some thought goes into street art. But he was nonplussed with his eyes rolling in their sockets with boredom.













In a very strange twist we then ended up at Proper Tea, for a cup of errrr tea - I can recommend this place highly and the Beijing Breakfast Tea is to die for.

Enough of the poncy tea drinking, until next time.........

Urbex News - November, December 2013

Another monthly round up of general news and links, new and improved and avoiding anything Daily Mail.

So lets start off with a few bits and bobs from Chernobyl, first off the protective shield takes shape - designed to last a 100 years whilst people carry on scratching their heads with what the fuck do about a problem like Chernobyl.

The Moscow Times reports on hunting down the wild wolves of Chernobyl that are now on the prowl and attacking.

I came face to face with a pack of wolves on my trip, thankfully in a cage, but I have to say they were livid and scary beastly fuckers, didn't help our friendly armed and pissed up soldier friend Mikhaylov tried shoving myself and Urban Spaceman in the cage - but we lived.

Pripyat is now on a "streetview" type thing - you may have seen this, but hey its a nice potter.

Moving on to exploration of derp in Scotland, with an article from the Scotsman Newspaper.

Onto the fallen Lancashire mill town of Rochdale with the Manchester Evening News reporting on the hidden River Roch that runs under the town.

Darmen Richter explores an abandoned Soviet circus in Moldova in one of his many, many travels.

Wastlelands hidden in busy cities, worth a look see over at on the Cracked website.

Hidden Batman street art anyone ? I love stumbling across treasure like this.
 
Until next time....

Sensible Shoes - la deuxième partie - la merde que j'ai vu

Well it's that time of year and I've put together a gathering of my favorite photos that I've taken over 2013 in the form of a book, the last book sold a few copies - so why not.

The Liwa Desert to Chernobyl, Blackpool and some aerial shots, Yorkshire, Scotland are featured amongst others.

Sensible Shoes - la deuxième partie - la merde que j'ai vu by Fragglehunter |

Miley Tunnels, Preston - December 2013

A collection of disused railway tunnels running thru and under the city of Preston, interesting....

Looked interesting this one -  a big long dark spooky tunnel, then throw in that a branch line that used to run to Whittingham Asylum and finally for added spin the tale of a ghost the haunts the tunnels going by the name of the Grey Lady.

 

Off we went, the Deepdale end looked like a bit an assault course, so we ventured down to Maudland with its handy parking.

Tripods, wire wool, plenty of torches, we decided to have a wander thru the tunnels and on the return leg camp out for an hour and do some wool spinning.





Then with a sudden case of heavy feet and general "one of them things" we had a man down, so sadly it was back to the car with a return visit on the cards - in fact we did return in the end.

Trinity Church, Bolton - Saved

Back in August 2011 I visited Trinity Church, it was a spooky knacker of Church.

- One less for the Heritage at Risk Register !

With work well underway, at last - looking forward to seeing this one when its finished.

 

Wales - from above - November 2013

The promised blue sky weather forecast didn't happen, overcast and cold did.

I find myself sitting in not my usual plane and I receive a text message "brave".

So I'm sat in a Jodel apparently, I'm not a Biggles type, so the name Jodel you see it just means nothing to me, the propeller starts and we are ready to go.

Not my usual pilot today and he calmly ( and why wouldn't he be calm ?) states "built in 1955,originally and then rebuilt twice". I didn't ask why and nor did I question the nugget of the information mentioning wooden  construction - which could be normal but when you have a text message simply saying "brave" I mentally question why another pilot would plant such a thought in my head.

I see dials and clocks and dials and clocks and plunger things and more dials and clocks - we are off to South Wales to land on a golf course for lunch, which turned out to be a sodding pastie !!!



It has to be said that the Jodel was a very smooth flight indeed, warm with a fantastic view with its clear plexiglass "bubble" roof - sadly the curve of the plexiglass did play havoc with the photos I took, but you don't complain when your bumming a free lift halfway across the country.

With every landing, one must take off to return home, so we trundled down the fairway or runway or airstrip that sits within the greens at the Rosemarket golf course.

Flying back in the more usual CTSW (below is a shot I took from the Jodel of the CTSW) that I'm more used to and it was time to try and get some shots in, so we left Rosemarket for a fly across the Pembrokeshire coast.
 



 









For a brief few minutes we did have blue sky, before we made a turn towards the shore.

 

Heading inland, we headed up to Lake Vyrnwy, rather picturesque with its tower which wouldn't be out of place in Harry Potter or the Hobbit.



With a race against time now on our hands with failing light, cloud and a 4 o'clock airport closing back at Manchester we climbed up above Mount Snowdon, with its first sprinkling of winter snow on the tops.



Finally heading to Denbigh and the closed Denbigh Asylum before the final leg home.



*** For avoidance of doubt, the pasties, (as is the coffee) are jolly nice at Rosemarket.

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