Pyestock Diaries

The savvy had long recognised this and adopted various methods to deal with it. Private areas in the forums sprang up, the "illumanti" "researching", visiting and photographing sites before becoming tired (usually after one visit) and throwing the doors open to the masses by announcing them with a poorly written "report". Or, there was the alternative, which was to simply keep absolutely quiet about it. So, I adopted the latter and said absolutely nothing.

As I gradually ploughed through the mountain of work, I thought about how I wanted to approach Pyestock. It would have to be a thorough, systematic exploration, encompassing both the exteriors and interiors of the key buildings on the site. Any maps, plans and documents found on the site would have to be photographed in-situ, their contents allowing the site's form and function to be assitained and determined. The size of the site would require multiple visits. In short, this body of work and documentation would require several visits and lots of photographs from exposed locations. My heart sank. If security were good and on-the-ball then this might be an impossible undertaking.

For instance, the idea of the virtual asylum was originally going to be Cane Hill, as I became increasingly dissatisfied with the limits of my own work. Whilst Walking The Perimeter and Grand Tour were both unique and ground breaking at the time (and still are, for everything since has been a pale imitation or worthless galleries of undated, unspecified, unlabeled pictures), I had fallen into a trap and simply started repeating myself with other visits. However, the security presence at Cane Hill prevented the systematic approach to the buildings which would be required, so I turned my attentions to Rauceby, as the security there was far less intensive. Luckily Rauceby never suffered any urban exploration attention despite myself, which has long perplexed me, and infuriated those who couldn’t be bothered to visit it until demolition started. So, would Pyestock have a similar security presence? And could I get the photographs I wanted?

Other photos appeared of this location, but no-one could tell you where they were taken. (Plant House, turbine hall, looking east). 21|04|07 © Simon Cornwell 2007