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Report - - Frank Whittle's Factory - Whetstone, Leicestershire - May 2014 | Industrial Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Frank Whittle's Factory - Whetstone, Leicestershire - May 2014

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Matt Inked

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
From the outside (And pretty much inside too) this is the most undesirable place I have explored. The factory is trashed, full of Asbestos, radiation and grafitti. But it was easy to do and it ticks another place off the list.

Visited with Hamtagger, Session9 and Catbalou

History Lesson​
In a small town outside of Leicester lies a little known secret, the factory that developed the jet engine.
Whetstone was the site of Frank Whittle‘s factory, where jet engines were developed. Babcock Services, ITP Engines Ltd and Converteam now occupy the site, with smaller companies renting space (mainly for storing commercial vehicles). Until 2002 the site still sounded an air raid siren at 8am to wake up workers.

The site of the Whittle factory became the English Electric Company (Later GEC) a significant part of several Nuclear power stations were made there in the 1960s and 70s. English Electric was one of the largest Engineering Companies in the Leicester area, employing thousands of workers and training hundreds of apprentices each year. At one point more than 4,000 workers had to be shipped in from Middlesex to help labour shortages and many settled permanently causing a boom in the late 60s.

The computer performance measurement called the “Whetstoneâ€￾ was developed by English Electric at the factory and takes its name from the town​

On with the pictures :)

This was quite off-putting
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A car wheel, casually sitting in a chair
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I have no idea where these lead to, just that it was flooded. And I didn't fancy getting wet.
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Someone clearly needed some new light bulbs
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This must have taken a while to do
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Just a stapler
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This worker had a softcore porn cupboard door. Horny bastard :wanker
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In Case Of Fire "Shove Fire Hose In Window"
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I'm guessing this guy was pretty "Norty" in School, he seemed to have failed his English tests.
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Not the trongest of floors, I could feel it dipping beneath my feet.
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A crane from the 80's
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Some boring stairs with no bannister
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Thanks for taking time to read my report. This factory was pretty boring, every room looked the same but the history behind it is interesting.
 

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catbalou

off the wall
Regular User
Lol... I think your captions to the photos are the best part!
It was rather a dire place... you have actually made it look less grim than it was!.. which is quite an achievement considering!
I think i spent a lot of time sitting on the roof watching the cricket players in the field across the road :)
 

Matt Inked

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
That's alreet that mate! Liking that pic of the chair the most.

And as for the radiation... My bathroom lightbulb fused yesterday before I left but tonight I can see myself glowing in the mirror anyway :D

I was expecting to wake up looking like the kids from Chernobyl
 

Clarence Trumble-Lovegod

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Superb pictures mate. What a shame the site is trashed. It makes so mad that a piece of world history - a place which has propelled the world forward in technology to such an amazing extent, has been left like this. In any other country, especially in places like France and the US, places like this are museums. Why is the UK so ashamed of it's contributions to the world?
 

ExpoLight

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
I like that place, more graffs on the walls to brighten it up . It's a shame its ended up in such a state. The Radiation signage is interesting, though a major off put. Looks like a silo in one of your images with the red hand rails on it. A good record of what is there.
 
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