Legs and Borders

As a preparation before the next adventure I'm trying different format of documenting the journey.  I've decided to walk around Canterbury, the city I live in and shoot it on an old Samsung EX1 camera I had for many years now.  Not the greatest of trails, but it's always interesting to see your surroundings!

Day 3 of the Britain's lockdown and things are changing pretty rapidly especially in the social sphere, it's really interesting to watch. We are only allowed to go out twice a day (if not commuting to work) once to get our essential shopping done and second to exercise (ride the bike, jog on, or a have a walk).  While walking on the pavement and passing someone else, people (if not completely going to the other side of the road) are walking as far on the other side of the pavement as possible. Many people are wearing the masks, some goggles and gloves, and I even seen one guy wearing a police riot style helmet. There's plenty of people doing their daily  exercise  on the little paths around Canterbury (previously fairly empty) which is great. Weather seems to be kind to us since the lockdown, it has been absolutely beautiful for the last week. Interestingly there's a lot of older people going out for walks and I haven't spotted many families with kids or young adu...

Don't get deceived by the title, it's a cool little place, full of interesting items. Solo visit.

This is what's happening when you cannot find the place, going to the pub and asking locals where it might be.. then realizing on arrival (or slightly later on) that it is a completely different place. visited with: Keïteï and Subversive Photography. history: built in 19th century grade ii listed building, consisting of 3 main parts: former orphanage, later girls school; a chapel and the convent accommodation. Some recent affairs lead to it's closure few years ago. This is certainly on top of my weirdest explores to date, with the strange builders, squatters and items found on site.

I wanted to visit this location for quite a while, and finally thanks to Keïteï and Subversive Photography managed to do it :) It didn't disappoint, lot's of vivid colours and a bit Mediterranean feeling to it. No problems with access and during the explore on here, St George Tower, has been done later on the same day. info: GT Manor is a grade II listed manor house in Oxfordshire, which is on a large estate along with another two manor houses. One part of the manor is in private residence, the rest remains disused.

Some places you are just meant to see too late. Demolition of Graylingwell is lets say 40% done, but unfortunately it has taken the main features, the hall and the projection room. Went there in the middle of the week and perhaps i shouldn't have as it was crawling with workers, so had good time dodging them for most of the time :) Fortunately didn't get caught and managed to see most of what has left. history: Graylingwell Asylum in Chichester, East Sussex was founded in 1894 then finally opened in 1897.  During World War I the hospital closed temporarily and was used as a base by the Military. The patients were evacuated to other southern asylum’s. On return to civilian use plans were put in place for additional buildings to the main hospital. These buildings included an admission hospital which was to be known as Summersdale, a nurses home to be known as Pinewood, a building for female tuberculosis patients and a female convalescent home and also a home for...

My first and hopefully not last visit to the Steel City, very positively surprised by it, one day trip turned out to be pretty epic experience, we managed to visit 3 out of 4 planned locations. all locations visited with: Keïteï, Subversive Photography, TrankmasT and Sammydoublewhammy . Firth Vickers Stainless Steels First stop on our trip, quite easy access and good chilled explore, met the best security guard on the way out, who officially allowed and encouraged us to go ahead and explore :) big thumb up. Firth Vickers were a major name in Sheffield's steel empire, and perhaps best known for the invention of Stainless steel in 1912. They branded this 'Staybrite' which gives this works its name. Firth Brown Steels was initially formed in 1902, when Sheffield steelmakers John Brown and Company exchanged shares and came to a working agreement with neighbouring company Thomas Firth & Sons. In 1908 the two companies came together and esta...

We were planning to visit St. Martins Deep Shelter, unfortunately missed the entrance somehow :) so instead did few little tunnels in Dover's Grand Shaft area, wasn't too bad, but revisit is definitely on cards.

Return to FH Manor with Andre Govia, one of the photographers featured in urban exploration book called Beauty in Decay   it was good to meet you mate. from left: Keïteï, Andre Govia, Subversive Photography, 2wid

Crazy explore, it was supposed to be done by 4 and ended up in a group of 10 people :) Site i secured very well, with car driving around all the time - we had a nice little chase on the way out.. The National Gas Turbine Establishment (NGTE Pyestock) in Fleet, part of the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE), UK was the prime site in the UK for design and development of gas turbine and jet engines. It was created by merging the design teams of Frank Whittle's Power Jets and the RAE turbine development team run by Hayne Constant. NGTE spent most of its lifetime as a major testing and development center, both for experimental developments as well as supporting the major commercial engine companies. For over 50 years  Pyestock was at the forefront of gas turbine development and was almost certainly the largest site of its kind in the world. V Bomber, Harrier and Tornado engines were all rigorously tested on site, the power of the air house allowed Concorde's engines to be t...