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Report - - Spring Quarry Parts 1 to 3 - Factories, Canteens and a Door to the end of the world | Noteworthy Reports | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Spring Quarry Parts 1 to 3 - Factories, Canteens and a Door to the end of the world

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Speed

Got Epic?
Regular User
The last few weeks have been intense to say the least, many 3 hour drives, many sleepless nights, a lot of hard graft and a lot of stressing over possible consequences of various actions. However when your putting up with it all for what has to be said is the absolute best explore you could ever hope to have, you just have to get on with it!

Il make the assumption everyone has at least a vague familiarity with what Spring Quarry was or indeed is. If your not sure then hopefully whatever I can prise from my brain will help explain. Quoting a paragraph from wikipedia and sticking up a thread full of unexplained pictures is not what is needed here. Indeed I was under the impression that I understood this place years ago but in reality, what you may read out there on the internet or in the various books covering the subject is at most vague and sometimes just plain wrong. Essentially we’re talking a large stone mine which was requisitioned during world war two and converted to a series of underground shadow factories manufacturing weaponry and aircraft parts. After the war some parts were abandoned and some reused the most notable part being converted to form a huge nuclear bunker, the size of a small town, intended to become the centre of UK government if a nuclear war ever started. Sound like somewhere you want to be in yet? I think so!

I guess it all started in November last year. I got word that a way into Spring had opened up and of course I shunned what ever I had planned for the weekend and headed down there. Alas, however, I was a day late! The window had past with only a handful of people getting a quick look inside. I put it all to the back of my mind for a while hoping for better luck next time. As it happens next time would be March this year, but again I had a similar occurrence and the window was missed again. They seemed serious about keeping people out! However this time I only had to wait a few days for another chance. This time its was frankly, a pretty scary chance and a chance for something id not ever imagined would be possible, not just a way into Spring but a way straight into the heart of the ‘UE holy grail’ that is Burlington itself. It just had to be tried and tried it was! It has to be said for the guys who had time on their side it worked out surprisingly well. You have to give a lot of respect to Kinger and his accomplices for pulling that one off but for me it just wasn’t going to happen. It just wasn’t possible to get the timing right and the one attempt we did have ended in some angry men, some fictional dogs and a lot of running away. In the end wasn’t too worried however, Id realised it just wasn’t the way I wanted to experience the place. Walking in through an open door required balls, yes, but it was just a little too easy and maybe just a little bit of a cheat. So between a few of us we set about finding our own way, a way that incorporated the epic infiltration experience id always imagined it would be!

Ive split my photos up into a few parts, and for once this is actually pretty necessary as theres well over 200 from about 6 trips underground!


Part 1 – The Bristol Centaurus Engine Works and Admiralty Stores


This part of the mine was used by the Bristol Aerospace Company to build aircraft engines. This is also the part of spring you may have seen photos from before when the guys got in there last November. Initially their factory was a lot bigger than what remains now but due to the construction Burlington around three quarters of it was lost. After the war the whole area was reused as stores for the navy until the 1980s and that means not a lot of evidence of the factory itself remains. That said even this part of the quarry alone was exceptionally interesting and a good crack to explore with its giant fans, air shafts, and drain culverts. Theres a nice generator hidden away in there and various sealed up blast doors with the noises of even more epicness seeping through!

This was my first foray into the mine and a solo trip as well so I was a little on edge knowing where I was. At times you could hear voices echoing about and even dogs barking but after a bit of creeping around it turned out to be coming down the air shafts from the base above. Un-nerving yes but nothing compared with the visits that would follow. It took about 4 hours to do ‘quick lap’ of this section on my first trip but we ended up delving further on subsequent trips for some of the more obscure parts.

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Im sure you pro explorers out there will be keen to see it even has its own drain, id name it bunker but i think thats allready taken! :rolleyes:

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Speed

Got Epic?
Regular User
Re: Spring Quarry Parts 1 to 3 - Factories, Canteens and a Door to the end of the wor

Part 2 – The Operatives Canteen

East of the navy area you find yourself in a section with a slightly different feel. The walls are not white washed and fixtures and fittings are a lot sparser. Initially I thought this was an area that was never completed but actually it’s just an area that was never converted into the navy stores. There are a few parts that would have been used for manufacturing and storage of finished product but they are pretty plain and uninteresting. What is good however are the remains of the operative’s canteen with its cool murals, menus and even a small stage!

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Speed

Got Epic?
Regular User
Re: Spring Quarry Parts 1 to 3 - Factories, Canteens and a Door to the end of the wor

Part 3 – ‘W’ Door and The East Lung

Up until now ive not mentioned Burlington too much but it was on our minds for sure. We very close having skirted its perimeter already and found two locked doors, ‘C’ Door and ‘D’ Door. Both these were bog standard looking blast doors, nothing too special but with a little bit of thought we worked out there would be a third door, aptly named ‘W’ Door. We had no maps, not wanting to get busted with them but we knew to the east of spring there was an unconverted area known as the ‘East Lung’ so we made that our aim for the night

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‘C’ Door


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‘D’ Door​



Finding our way through wasn’t too taxing and myself and rooks found ourselves wandering in unconverted mine in the vague direction we wanted to go. Up until this point everything was well and truly derelict but rounding a corner our torches illuminated modern looking safety ropes and behind them a concrete road way. This was getting interesting!

Cautiously pressing on, things got better, powered light switches, pumps running but as we rounded the next corner I saw what was probably the most awesome sight ive ever seen while exploring. Picture it, Your in an abandoned stone quarry under a military base, you know vaguely what’s in the area, one of the most significant underground complexes in the world, but information is still vague. Then you round the corner and see this!

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If that’s not a door to awesomeness I don’t know what is!! One problem however, it was, also, LOCKED!

After scraping our jaws off the floor and messing about daring each other to phone the guard house from inside the airlock we decided to explore the rest of the area, disused airways ran north and south and various paths ran off into the East Lung, the area had several lagoons for Burlington’s waste water and a little way down the road there were a couple of very much live pumping stations keeping the storm waters at bay. (Springs weakness was always its water ingress problems!) Heading north its possible to find your way around the north of Burlington into more abandoned factory, almost up against the wall of Box railway tunnel where the rumbles of high speed trains passing was more satisfying anything ive heard draining or even tubing in London! Alas the way further north across the tunnel into even more epicness was well bricked up but we could see lights seeping through the cracks in the brickwork in several places suggesting we were not far away!


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Roadway

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These were deep into the lung, very old for sure

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A disused airway leading down to a (possibly capped) airshaft

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A lagoon, now pretty much empty

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Underground boating, obviously they used this to get around the lagoons when they were full.

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Substation for the pumping equipment

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Pump House 1, this was in use, a small heater was running to stop condensation on the electrics but it was having quite the opposite effect on my lens! A bit further down there was an identical backup pump house.

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More abandoned factory north of Burlington, there was another airshaft just off here but the fan had been removed and the passageways through to both Burlington and tunnel bricked up.

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Un-explained vents?

We also found extra parts of the canteen annexed from the main area when Burlington was constructed.

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Stay tuned for parts 4-8 later this week :)
 
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Rookinella

I should have danced all night
28DL Full Member
Re: Spring Quarry Parts 1 to 3 - Factories, Canteens and a Door to the end of the wor

Alright, I'll grant you that was a better explained report than mine but I'm a picture person :gay

Your non-centered photos are a bit annoying too :D
 

REEF

Getthegirlkillthebaddies
28DL Full Member
Re: Spring Quarry Parts 1 to 3 - Factories, Canteens and a Door to the end of the wor

UNREAL!!

Well Done
 

Dempsey

The Human Turbine.
28DL Full Member
Re: Spring Quarry Parts 1 to 3 - Factories, Canteens and a Door to the end of the wor

Fucking excellent, this is what i need in my life, stuff like this to read when im drinking tea, first report which Defines the word epic in a long time. Peadofile. Oh, and whats the generator, thats one big fucker!
 
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Brick_Man

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Re: Spring Quarry Parts 1 to 3 - Factories, Canteens and a Door to the end of the wor

mmmm, moistening.

so you never got that sweet ass bank type door open then?
 

SparkUK

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Re: Spring Quarry Parts 1 to 3 - Factories, Canteens and a Door to the end of the wor

Yeah that's kinda brightening my day up...... Looks brilliant.
 

spungletrumpet

Super Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Re: Spring Quarry Parts 1 to 3 - Factories, Canteens and a Door to the end of the wor

Top report mate.. Looking forward to future installmts! :thumb
 

urbanity

28dl flâneur
28DL Full Member
Re: Spring Quarry Parts 1 to 3 - Factories, Canteens and a Door to the end of the wor

Drains, culverts, factories, offices, bunkers, military stuff, leisure facilities, all in one convenient location. What more could you want from a night out? Unrelenting epicness from start to finish. Bring on parts 4 - 8 :thumb
 

Squirrell 911

28DL Regular User
Regular User
Re: Spring Quarry Parts 1 to 3 - Factories, Canteens and a Door to the end of the wor

Hmmm. Its no ROC though is it? I mean some of them have carpet in and stuff :p

Cracking explore mate :thumb
 

pauln

too old to be reckless
28DL Full Member
Re: Spring Quarry Parts 1 to 3 - Factories, Canteens and a Door to the end of the wor

Simply stunning and a great narrative.
 

tucker

Scallywag
28DL Full Member
Re: Spring Quarry Parts 1 to 3 - Factories, Canteens and a Door to the end of the wor

Fine job on persevering with it mate, hope i get half a chance again soon.
 

Dark Prince

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Re: Spring Quarry Parts 1 to 3 - Factories, Canteens and a Door to the end of the wor

OMG the cork door....you found it....well done!!. I was way too chicken to get that close to it.

DP
 

Heracles

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Re: Spring Quarry Parts 1 to 3 - Factories, Canteens and a Door to the end of the wor

Very jealous..

Damn my leg!
 
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