This is a report in two halves, my first explore of the mighty Pyestock and sadly an update on the demolition.
For those of you annoyed by the demo updates, please ignore the 2nd half.
I'll skip over the history as this is well known and covered in many previous reports.
This site has been on my to-do list for a long time and learning about it's demise I got myself there before it's too late. I only visited cell 4 (and the attached no.9 exhauster) and cell 3. Here are my favourites of the 300+ pics I took:-
To me, these first two pictures sum up cell 4, it is truely magnificent:-
Some dials I found amoungst the mass of pipes:-
Underneath the belly of the beast:-
Next door is the no.9 exhauster:-
I have no idea what this is, but I like it
Cell 4 and the attached exhauster are untouched by the demo, cell 3 is not
-
I believe the computer building is intact and I walked the length of Monks tunnel (also fully intact) but I did not go any further south than cell 3.
Now for the sad part: Demo Update
*Cell 4 is untouched*
The brief version of what's been demolished (that I could see) is this:-
Pretty much all the pipes from the air house (only sections of 2 high level pipes left)
Cell 3 west
No. 10 exhauster
Most of the above ground buildings of cell 3
The 'back half' of cell 3 test chamber
To give you an idea of how fast the site is being demo'd, my initial rekky, no. 10 exhauster looked like this:-
Upon my explore, 7 days later, it looked like this (basically it's gone and you can see the red tank and innards of a turbine on a pile of rubble):-
Looking west from cell 4, you can see to the right is where no.10 exhauster was, just left of centre is the refrigaration plant and to the left of that is where cell 3 west used to be:-
Again, cell 3 west is gone:-
Looking I think west from whats left of cell 3 test chamber:-
Looking south west ish I think from cell 4, you can see the power sub station still there (and buzzing literally) but the blue pipes from the air house are long gone (and the above ground part of cell 3 gone):-
Looking south now I think from cell 4, you can see the air house and weir road but I'm not sure what has gone:-
Again looking southish from cell 4, you can see weir road (the computer building is still there just out of shot) and aside from all the pipework going to the air house, I'm not sure what has dissappeared:-
I did not explore the air house but I believe it to be intact because the internal machinery and pipes are so heavy and massive that they can not economically take them out with out removing the building first. They will do what they did with no. 10 exhauster.
If you haven't been to this monster site yet, IMHO it is still worth it just to see cell 4. It's scale is breath taking, it's a beautiful industrial beast and lets not forget that concorde's engines where tested in it.
Thank you for reading my first report on this site, if you would like to see more of my pictures then I'll gladly post them.
For those of you annoyed by the demo updates, please ignore the 2nd half.
I'll skip over the history as this is well known and covered in many previous reports.
This site has been on my to-do list for a long time and learning about it's demise I got myself there before it's too late. I only visited cell 4 (and the attached no.9 exhauster) and cell 3. Here are my favourites of the 300+ pics I took:-
To me, these first two pictures sum up cell 4, it is truely magnificent:-
Some dials I found amoungst the mass of pipes:-
Underneath the belly of the beast:-
Next door is the no.9 exhauster:-
I have no idea what this is, but I like it
Cell 4 and the attached exhauster are untouched by the demo, cell 3 is not
-
I believe the computer building is intact and I walked the length of Monks tunnel (also fully intact) but I did not go any further south than cell 3.
Now for the sad part: Demo Update
*Cell 4 is untouched*
The brief version of what's been demolished (that I could see) is this:-
Pretty much all the pipes from the air house (only sections of 2 high level pipes left)
Cell 3 west
No. 10 exhauster
Most of the above ground buildings of cell 3
The 'back half' of cell 3 test chamber
To give you an idea of how fast the site is being demo'd, my initial rekky, no. 10 exhauster looked like this:-
Upon my explore, 7 days later, it looked like this (basically it's gone and you can see the red tank and innards of a turbine on a pile of rubble):-
Looking west from cell 4, you can see to the right is where no.10 exhauster was, just left of centre is the refrigaration plant and to the left of that is where cell 3 west used to be:-
Again, cell 3 west is gone:-
Looking I think west from whats left of cell 3 test chamber:-
Looking south west ish I think from cell 4, you can see the power sub station still there (and buzzing literally) but the blue pipes from the air house are long gone (and the above ground part of cell 3 gone):-
Looking south now I think from cell 4, you can see the air house and weir road but I'm not sure what has gone:-
Again looking southish from cell 4, you can see weir road (the computer building is still there just out of shot) and aside from all the pipework going to the air house, I'm not sure what has dissappeared:-
I did not explore the air house but I believe it to be intact because the internal machinery and pipes are so heavy and massive that they can not economically take them out with out removing the building first. They will do what they did with no. 10 exhauster.
If you haven't been to this monster site yet, IMHO it is still worth it just to see cell 4. It's scale is breath taking, it's a beautiful industrial beast and lets not forget that concorde's engines where tested in it.
Thank you for reading my first report on this site, if you would like to see more of my pictures then I'll gladly post them.
