Thoresby Colliery - April 2016

Thoresby Colliery was a coal mine in north Nottinghamshire. The mine opened in 1925, and closed in  July 2015, then Nottinghamshire's last coal mine.

Visited with Tbolt and Snapt, this place is a quagmire of mud and coal slop and additionally there be dragons !
 

Now my intrepid explorer, here comes a word of warning, my fellow explorer Mr Snapt nearly came to a sticky end when he was sucked off in a bog or rather when he lost his shoes to the thick slop that surrounds many of the buildings. I was expecting Tbolt to fall to the same fate but somehow he does seem to walk on water at times. To give Mr Snapt his due, any lesser man would have called it a day and shuffled off home. Mr Snapt battled on in the face of adversity.

All in all not a bad little mooch which would normally get possibly 6/10, however an extra point must be given for the notice of the year.




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St Joseph's Seminary, Upholland - March 2016

I'm not an early morning person and this was a very early morning meeting with Lavino, Tbolt and Blacksnake - very early cannot be stated enough.



To recap, I have never had much luck at this old seminary and our guide Lavino was a godsend, despite my serious misgivings the visit was uneventful in all the right ways.

This former Roman Catholic seminary opened in 1883 and is now a vast empty Grade II Listed building rapidly falling into major disrepair following its closure final closure in 1991.

So here are my snaps including homage to all the shite HDR shots I have longingly stared at for years as I itched to have a potter around this place.
 

A rather excellent mooch, sadly "time short"  7/10

A big thanks to Lavino.

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ABC Forum Cinema, Lime Street, Liverpool - March 2016

Sitting in a prominent position in Liverpool City Centre is the local landmark of the former Forum Cinema which has sat ever so slowly rotting since closure 29th January 1998.

This Grade II listed building opened its doors in 1931 as the ABC Forum with a showing of the film Almost a Honeymoon starring Clifford Mollison, finally closing as Cannon Forum in 1998 with a one off showing of the classic Humphrey Bogart film Casablanca. Having survived the the UK wide cinema closures of the 1980s caused by the march of home video, this cinema was forced to close due to the rise of the new multiplex cinemas.





Visited with Blacksnake, Tbolt, Lavino and a chap called Wherever I May Roam. (twice) this place is rather dark as you would expect, however it is dimly lit in parts with temporary lighting dotted here and there.

All photos have been done with Bulb setting F/4.5 and light painting.










Anyway, on to the main feature.

I do like a good cinema, 10/10

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Cwmorthin Quarry, Blaenau Ffestiniog, March 2016

Cwmorthin Quarry, in fact not quarry but a labyrinthine mine system with many miles of tunnels and caverns lies in Wales, the area is said to be the inspiration for Middle Earth in JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.







Visited with Tbolt, Blacksnake and a young whippet of chap only know as HDarby, our guide into this Welsh underworld was the ever mole like explorer Blober - it is said he has traversed this mine system in excess of 50 times - which was as well, the place is maze and a sure deathtrap for those without without an experienced mole person.

Not many photos of the mine itself, the trip was more of an endurance test with downward scrambles and long climbs up over broken slate, at one point a recent roof collapse hampered our upwards exit.











All that remained was for Blober to lock up the mine to keep riff raff like us out of the place.



An excellent trip out, a big thanks to the latest Team Weasel recruit Blober for his 10/10 explore packed with history, insight and the bonus of safely bringing us to the surface.

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