Pyestock Diaries

"I really don’t mind you dicking around on that hoist, but I’m here to take a few photographs." It was fairly late in the afternoon and my fourth trip to Pyestock was becoming a little frustrating. Marlon and Tom had found an emergency hoist in the gantry crane of the Power Station, and Tom was debating whether to give it a try. He'd uncoiled the rope so Marlon could test it at ground level by putting his full weight on it.

I was worried that Tom would simply plunge straight down from the cab after coiling the mechanism back up and jumping from the canopy; but I was more concerned about the sheer amount of noise they were making.

Therefore I left them to it. I finished photographing the ground floor of the Power Station and made my way into the offices to the north of the building. Tom and Marlon eventually reappeared looking a little sheepish. I couldn’t really blame them: Marlon’s camera was being repaired so he was making do with an old film camera with hardly any features. (We would joke occasionally about his "analogue" camera, it’s ridiculously noisy timer and having to wind the film on). But he was making do with the best he had. Tom suffered battery problems; his camera refused to work with the brand new AA batteries he’d bought for it. (A similar fate happened to me at Cane Hill and RAF Upwood and both explorations were never written up). Therefore the guys amused themselves in different ways - hence the winch.

Tom's drop from the crane gantry to the concrete floor of the turbine hall. 31|03|07 © Simon Cornwell 2007