Tales of the Urban Explorer: Magazine Farm & Munitions Depot

in #hive-1043873 years ago

I was told this was an old munitions depot and was expecting little. After the Ministry of Supply Munitions Factory which was a bore-fest, my mind had already been made up.

It will be something like a deserted Butlins Holiday camp while being devoid of humanity. Magazine Farm has its own road junction and that made it easy to park.

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It also tells everyone that we are on the grounds. The day was so hot that I doubt anyone cared. It was one of those rare occasions that put the UK on par with tropical countries.

Magazine Farm was originally a munitions storage facility for the British Army, established 1889.

The site was expanded throughout the years, but ultimately abandoned from its original purpose in the 1970s where it was sold, converted into a pig farm (also known as a Piggery), and was used to breed pigs until its closure in the 1990s. The site has remained crumbling and derelict ever since.
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I had no idea of the history during our visit but the pig farm makes sense. Bloody pigs and their shit, I try my best to keep clear of what they leave behind lest it sticks to my feet and contaminates the car.

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The link from another explorer reveals some interesting details about ‘Magazine Farm'. We came across what is detailed as 'Cottages' right away.

Getting inside the cottages was a question of which window or door to climb or walk through. They looked severely neglected and so my expectations were low.

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Built-in cupboards are a 'thing' of these kinds of old houses. They have survived remarkably well.

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Upstairs was easy enough if you jump the big hole near the bottom. The wood placed across it seemed more like a decoy to get you falling down the gap.

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This room was quite bare besides the big hole designed to trap your ankle and rupture your calf. I saw right through it.

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I have no doubts that this is the original bathtub. You can still get these but not with rust attached... that's extra.

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Very sturdy and typical of our ancient working-class housing.

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People once sat here and gazed out upon what looked like a concentration camp.

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The block of houses I guess housed three families which means three lots of stairs.

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Besides dodgy banister-less landing areas and more bad-conditioned baths, there was little else to see.

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The Gunpowder store was built in 1889 and is one of the original buildings.

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There was some evidence of what it used to house, as well as long dark creepy corridors.

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What this is I cannot tell you, except it was festered with spiders, webs, and a logo that looks suspiciously like 'McCain'

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...'McCain or something else?'...

One strong punch to penetrate this facade and we could have been buried in a pile of chips or French fries as the Americans call them.

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@goblinknackers seemed to be immune from the spiders on this occasion. Maybe it’s the arachnoids themselves and not their webs he has an aversion to.

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Walking around Magazine Farm was similar to a theme park. You visit and then move to the next sight.

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…'except some of the sights were not so enthralling'…

Corrugated iron sheds with pig shit. Fuck that…, it's one sight I will veer away from at lightning speed.

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We came to a series of long buildings described as the 'stores'.

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Some were suspiciously like pig barns and I quickly moved on.

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A few had laughable locks and attempts to keep people out. It was never going to happen and if there are things to see I will be in there.

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Ugh, whatever was splattered on those walls is not worth contemplating.

One large building appeared to be locked but we managed to scrape through the door with one of us holding it open for the other.

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It looked to be filled with tools and knick-knacks.

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A few pieces of rusty engineering, this one with a dial.

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The drill looked well oiled or had someone taken a piss on it?

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An industrial lathe perhaps?

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All full of cobwebs. How long since anyone has been in here? I have read other reports on Magazine Farm and they seem to have missed all this.

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If you are going to teach yourself First Aid then it's always wise to have a stash of Elastoplast's handy.

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That old chain would make a fine weapon. Swing it around your head and strike terror into your enemies.

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It does look like a concentration camp, don’t you think?

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A little better than expected and Magazine Farm had some atmosphere. Just avoid the pig shit.

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At least the vandals seem to have stayed away from this place. I don't think I even saw a hit of spray paint in any of your pictures. This ended up being a lot bigger than I was expecting given your first photo. I remember seeing a show about some pig/goat/sheep farm in England that used to be a fallout bunker. This wasn't it of course, but it just goes to show you never know what something might be hiding.

'It's a little rural, out of the way and that keeps the thugs away' - I could have been a poet?

Someone gave me this one and we added it to the list. It was a tough one to get a great cover image as it's sprawling and nothing looks particularly good.

I understand!

@tipu curate 🌸

Thanks!

What an amazing looking place, it reminds me of something you would see out of a Miss Marple murder mystery when it was in its former glory. Its wonderful to see old places like these, it would be nice to see it in its former glory Wondering could it be McCains, or McCoys maybe??
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It's Mc' something for sure, not Donald's but maybe those others.

I love to start the week with a urbex post of your!

One thing I was really curious about: Does the place smells like ancient pig farm?

And I would avoid both the blue and red "pills" in the first bathtub, the matrix would be the least of your problems after taking that XD

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I can't remember any bad smells at this one. Some of them I visit.. jeez.., it can be overpowering!

Oof I can imagine, there was one recently where you found human waste in a corridor, that must be one of the overpowering ones XD thanks for replying!

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You would expect a munitions store to be fairly isolated for obvious reasons. The buildings would have been quite nice once upon a time. Nice low window cills for a good view out. Now it's just rotting away. At least you found some interesting machines. Nice one.

I do it just to get out, @goblinknackers comes along as he likes the buzz (like me) and rummaging through old documents if we find any.

I get that it's fun, but we each find that in our own ways. I enjoy your posts as I like seeing old buildings whilst learning some of their history.

Just before you had mentioned it, I was thinking that those cupboards looked to be in great shape given the years of neglect and weather at this point. Cool exploration I would say. What.. You weren't able to catch a shot of a pig? I was half expecting to see one running around in there somewhere. lol. 😆

Not even one trotter hanging about!

An industrial lathe perhaps?

Bench mounted grinding wheels, used for sharpening stuff, subject to The Abrasive Wheels Regulations 1970,

I could go on but that would be boring!!!

You really treat those pigs and their shit with great contempt, Lol . It is amazing how ancient buildings such as this stand the test of time . Funny how it is not a house built on the rock.

Not a fan of pigs after standing in their shit once.

horrific scene I get , sorry about that . Stay safe! Especially from Pig shit!! 😅

your urban exploration posts fascinate me

Hey sweetie! I hope you and Mrs Slobberchops are doing well! Ok, I have a challenge for you 😂 can you find me a rundown farmhouse with land, in a rural area that I can buy cheap and do up and take over with all my pooches haha 😂🐶🐶🐶🐶🐶

We are doing good, its good to hear from you again, I hope you're OK,

How about this, there's even a free car!

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😂😂😂 omg I’m rolling!!! Tbh, it would have to do right now, I just need somewhere to live haha 😆

This is why I love the stone and brick buildings no matter their former use, the good lines of this building scream out to be a little country house. I probably just see such houses everywhere anyway, so I might be projecting, but heavens what vastness you found.

These type of explorations seem to hit more and more to the heart with our quickly changing world...what is around the corner for all of us and what do we see now, bright shiny penny new that might be tomorrows dereliction?

As always thought provoking and visually simulating @slobberchops

To be fair Butlins itself always looks like a concentration camp and this looked positively cheery in comparison. That engineering gear would have made some good black and white moody shots.

A theme park, @slobberchops? This seriously makes me worry about your childhood. Or maybe theme parks in the UK are less friendly and fun than those in the USA and Canada (the two countries which form my theme park experience).

I realize that "magazine" in "Magazine Farm" likely refers to munitions, but is it bad that I like to imagine that this is how magazines were made in the olden days?

Harlow's imagination runs away and she cannot catch up to rein it in...

"Just carefully typeset issue one and make sure the layout is perfect, see? Then we plant several rows of them. No. It's not crazy. It's a Magazine Farm. Well, how the hell did you think Issue 2 was going to happen? Did you think we were just going to keep hiring photographers and writers and the shit with the printing press? No. We plant it and, in 28 days, we find out what Issue 2 is all about. I hope it's not too controversial! But not too bland either. We need these to sell."

Its located on Magazine Road, that's got to be the connection!

I think someone there had fantasy with bathub so that they had portable one to move it from one to another place :)

This one actually looks like someone might salvage it? Hopefully so, some of those buildings are a part of history...

for some reason that bathtub makes me think of Cleveland from Family Guy

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That's really cool. There's a WWII munitions depot about 20 minutes from me. I love poking about out there. I have friends who use the forklift maintenance building as a shop.

Awesome pictures. Thanks for sharing!

Are you on the UK? This is the second one I have found. They don't appear to be very common.

No I live in the middle of the US. The one near me supplied I believe about 40% of all US Navy ordinance during WWII.

Bacon was gone! No sign of munitions perhaps stripped long ago, plenty Elastoplast to fix things though!

Like the bricks on the old building, wooden cabinets were made to last (not plywood), nice haul through this abandoned place and great photography to tell the story!

A little evidence of what it has been, but you had to look.

Not many places left untouched, most a shell of former life, surprised not knocked down already in most cases making way for new.

It's funny, it reminds me of an old man that I used to know. His house was in shit but he came out smelling of roses and looking like a million dollars everyday. When he died, the house was falling asunder but his bath was clean. 😂

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Interesting spot. It's pretty empty compared to a lot of the places you visit. Makes sense given what it is. Do you find it more or less interesting to visit when there is no furniture and personal stuff left over from the previous owners?

I find all of them interesting, you can always find something however large or small they are.

Yeah I can see that. The adventure and the mystery of what you might find.

That's not a lathe. It's a grinding machine. Someone had a decent workshop there at some point.

I was terrible during school at Metalwork and took little notice of the types of machinery available. Can't you tell?

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