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Report - leon motors the return visit

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farmer.ned

magic.clean
28DL Full Member
hi over a year has passed since i last wrote on the forum and visited the remains of leons depot in finningley near doncaster( see my leon thread)
the car cleaning went tits up and the wife fell down stairs so its been a bit of a year but thankfully both are now back on track.

the last time i visited this site was may 2018 and a recent car cleaning customer told me that the depot site had been flattened so a return visit
was called for.
so a couple of days later armed with my camera i drove to the old leon site to see if what she said was true and to be honest i was expecting a cleared and flattened site but not so the repair shed was still standing although i could see it had been subject to an arson attack and this definately warranted further investigation.
a steel security fence stretched across the entrance to the old depot and the house next door aparantly the house is staying but the leon depot is to be demolished along with the bungalow next door and seven houses are to be built and a talkative old boy with his dog told me the site had been like this for some time.
a gap in the steel fencing between the leon site and next door called for a batman job over the wall untill i noticed the fence wasnt fastened at the entrance which suddenly popped open all of its own accord creating a gap for me to go through once inside i made for the shed which is now open and damaged with a burnt out bus in it.
the garage roof isnt too severely damaged even though the bus was a write off and the top deck had collapsed into the bottom leaving a mass of twisted steel and aluminum
i managed to get a few interior shots of the bus which strangely enough was the one i had took a picture of through the door a year previously i was shocked that someone could do that sort of thing.
theres a couple of the fitters lockers still inside the garage a couple of notice boards and a sign that states do not start see fitter after photographing these and a rather dead squirrel on the garage floor i moved to the side office and store room which was full of junk old paperwork and a couple of bus windows littered the floor so mindfull of the rule take nothing but photographs i took pictures of the office and a couple of log sheets from when it was mass/brightbus as nearly all traces of its leon origins had been erased apart from a couple of 926,s panels in the undergrowth which had also gone and looked like it had been burnt and removed.
thinking this is possibly the last time i,ll see it like this i took my leave my headed to my car cleaning job for the day.
but the days surprises were not over as i was heading to another report later that day i came across leons last surviving bus number 101 is now doing duty as an office at a car repairers but i would like to do it as short seperate thread on it as the leon finale.
so after 82 years another bit of finningley history will soon disappear like the RAF station which became robin hood airport to become a housing estate of those rabbit hutch houses springing up all over the uk.
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then.... the entrance to leons depot during the mass/leon days
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now... the derelict leon garage and fire damaged shed in the background now covered by security fencing the gap opened on the left
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even the diesel tanks have gone
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looking towards the wash ramp and fire damged shed
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then.... two fitters pose with 91 sandtoft trolleybus museum regular jim sambrooks is on the right
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now.....the fire damaged shed
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the sad remains of the bus stored in the shed with the fire damaged roof
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from the other side the top deck has collapsed into the lower deck
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still in its brightbus colours heshan leaves a clue
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fire damage to the garage roof
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despite the graffiti notice boards are still on the walls
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and bus signs
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the sad end of the squirrel in death like the rest of the site
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two resting leon deckers outside the fitters office
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now just memories of the past
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mass worksheets
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the fitters store full of rubbish
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the wash ramp has become a wildlife habitat
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but the original gate sign still survives

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