Probably the last one of the year for me. This spot just outside Oxford is a location I've gone past a great many times on the way to Reading, and I, for some reason, thought it was being redeveloped or taken over or something, but it hasn't. On the way back from other ventures we had some time to kill so decided to have a look and see what we could find.
The site is made up of two distinct buildings which were entirely separate. The first was Dorchester House, a mixed use office/light industrial type affair with offices at the front and rear and a warehouse section in the middle. The second building, of a similar age and design, was once home to Knowles & Son, a building contractors. After a couple of times around the perimeter I spotted a way on site that had been staring us all in the face, and after some more walking around, failing to find a way into the Knowles building, stumbled into Dorchester House.
All was going well, we explored as much of it as we could - although it became apparent that the two storey section at the front was completely walled off from the rest and sealed externally too. There is a palisade fence that stretches across the middle of the site halfway between the two buildings so the plan was to climb out of a window at the back of Dorchester House and then try and find a way into the rear end of the Knowles building which we hadn't been able to get at from the front. I went off to find a suitable unlocked window and as I pulled the blinds back, caught sight of a completely unexpected security car reversing up between the buildings. Luckily at the point I saw it, only the rear half of the car was in my eyeline so I very quickly made the others aware that security had arrived where we needed to be, so quickly we ducked out the way we'd came in and got off site before the guard decided to investigate further. After getting back to the car we drove off past the main gates and saw a very confused looking guard parked right where we'd emerged from the site, so whether there are sensors somewhere on the outside of one of the buildings I don't know. The arrival of them was totally unexpected for somewhere like this, but made for a little bit of excitement to end the year on.
So not an amazing site overall, but another local one ticked off at least. It was nice to see only natural decay inside, it somehow has avoided being obliterated by the youth of Berinsfield which is very surprising.
Thanks for looking
The site is made up of two distinct buildings which were entirely separate. The first was Dorchester House, a mixed use office/light industrial type affair with offices at the front and rear and a warehouse section in the middle. The second building, of a similar age and design, was once home to Knowles & Son, a building contractors. After a couple of times around the perimeter I spotted a way on site that had been staring us all in the face, and after some more walking around, failing to find a way into the Knowles building, stumbled into Dorchester House.
All was going well, we explored as much of it as we could - although it became apparent that the two storey section at the front was completely walled off from the rest and sealed externally too. There is a palisade fence that stretches across the middle of the site halfway between the two buildings so the plan was to climb out of a window at the back of Dorchester House and then try and find a way into the rear end of the Knowles building which we hadn't been able to get at from the front. I went off to find a suitable unlocked window and as I pulled the blinds back, caught sight of a completely unexpected security car reversing up between the buildings. Luckily at the point I saw it, only the rear half of the car was in my eyeline so I very quickly made the others aware that security had arrived where we needed to be, so quickly we ducked out the way we'd came in and got off site before the guard decided to investigate further. After getting back to the car we drove off past the main gates and saw a very confused looking guard parked right where we'd emerged from the site, so whether there are sensors somewhere on the outside of one of the buildings I don't know. The arrival of them was totally unexpected for somewhere like this, but made for a little bit of excitement to end the year on.
So not an amazing site overall, but another local one ticked off at least. It was nice to see only natural decay inside, it somehow has avoided being obliterated by the youth of Berinsfield which is very surprising.
Thanks for looking
