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Type Index

By Name : By County
Smaller sites are listed in the alphabetical index


Comms. : Defence : Domest. : Gardens : Hosp'ls : Indust. : Relig. : Research & Edu.

A wide variety of building types become redundant over time with the changing needs of society. Over the last century changes in technology, economy, war and society have left scores of redundant buildings in their wake. Most are swiftly replaced by new structures that better meet our needs, but many remain because they are too remote, too costly or too valuable to remove. Please be aware that because some sites have been used for multiple purposes, they will appear in more than one category.


Communications
Tatsfield Receiving Station
This derelict BBC Technical station which monitored domestic and foreign broadcasts was the first place in Britain to recieve signals from the Russian satellite Sputnik I.



Defence
Arun Stop Line
WWII defences surrounding the nodal point of Horsham - pillboxes, obstacles, gun emplacements designed to hinder a Nazi invasion that fortunately never came.
Chichester RAF Distribution Depot
A well-preserved defended fuel depot built to serve fighter airfields on the South Coast during the Second World War. The depot remained in use into the 1990s and retains many of its original features including bunkers and machinery.
Coulsdon Deep Air Raid Shelter
A WWII public air raid shelter which later found use in making lenses for telescopes and television cameras; now a hangout for down and outs.
Deepdene: Southern Railway Bunker
At the outbreak of the Second World War, the Southern Railway Company evacuated their traffic control and telephone operations to the former Deepdene Hotel in Dorking, taking advantage of an extensive system of sandstone caves to establish an underground communications hub which now lies abandoned under a forest of rhododendrons.
Dunley Hill Camp
A WWII Canadian Artillery camp hidden in the woods of Ranmore Common near Dorking, a small part of the enormous Canadian presence on the North Downs during the early 40s.
RAF Dunsfold
A class 'A' Bomber airfield built in 1942 for the Royal Canadian Air Force. After the War, it played a vital role in the development of the Harrier VTOL aircraft and other defence projects as a factory for Hawker and BAe. Surviving features include runways, buildings, shelters and an underground bunker.
Fraser Gunnery Range
A disused Naval gunnery school, missile range and Admiralty RADAR Research Establishment which closed in 2006.
Purdown: Bristol No. 6 HAA Battery
The bunkers, magazines and gun mounts of Purdown Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery now stand overgrown in the shadow of Purdown BT Tower but were once an integral part of Bristol's defences against air raids.
Worms Heath Igloo 2 HAA Battery
An anti-aircraft gun site built in the early years of the Cold War to provide artillery-based defence against Russian bombers.
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Domestic
Beedingwood
A remarkable gothic fantasy of a house built in 1876 for philanthropic bacon merchant Thomas Denny. During WWII it became part of a pioneering rehabilitation hospital but was closed in 1983.
Hollywood Lodge
A Georgian gentleman's residence bought by hospital authorities in the 1930s and used as an annexe to The Manor and West Park Mental Hospitals until 2003.
Oaklands Park House
The Victorian mansion at Oaklands Park was built c. 1890, probably for Capt. Richard Elliott Palmer (b.1853), formerly of the Kerry Militia, and his wife Mrs Minnie Merritt Palmer (b.1856) a cycling enthusiast and patron of the arts. Having been abandoned around 1998, it has now been derelict almost twenty years.
Steep Park
A rambling Victorian mansion, formerly home to a wealthy artisan and his wife, which fell into ruin after their deaths at the turn of the 21st century.
Tangley Place
A Victorian mansion and later laboratories used by the M.A.F.F. as a field station for animal testing. Closed in 1996, it was devastated by arson and began collapsing in on itself.
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Gardens
Lost Gardens
A brief history of the rise and decline of the country house garden and a compilation of pictures of gardens in decay.
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Hospitals
Barrow Hospital
The Second Bristol City Mental Hospital was designed in the 1930s to be a progressive centre for treating diseases of the mind. Although the full plan was never completed, the hospital served until 2006.
Beedingwood
A remarkable gothic fantasy of a house built in 1876 for philanthropic bacon merchant Thomas Denny. During WWII it became part of a pioneering rehabilitation hospital but was closed in 1983.
The Epsom Cluster
A 'mini-site' charting the rise and decline of West Park, St. Ebba's, Horton, Long Grove and the Manor; the five great Edwardian 'asylums' which stood to the West of Epsom.
Hollywood Lodge
A Georgian gentleman's residence bought by hospital authorities in the 1930s and used as an annexe to The Manor and West Park Mental Hospitals until 2003.
Mid Wales Hospital
A large turn-of-the-century psychiatric institution hidden amongst the Brecon Beacons and slowly rotting from the top down after conversion plans fell through in 2008.
Milford Hospital
A former tuberculosis sanatorium built by Surrey County Council in the late 1920s. Converted to a geriatric rehabilitation centre in the 1980s, a major reorganisation in 1997 saw many of the central services and ward buildings abandoned.
St Francis's Hospital (cemetery and isolation wards)
Exploring around the edges of a large Victorian psychiatric hospital; abandoned wards, antique bottles and a forgotten burial place.
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Industrial
Abingworth Nurseries
A long-disused mushroom farm hiding an unexpected potpourri manufacturing outfit. A victim of cheap imports and changing tastes.
Baynards Works
In 1937 the Steetley Chemical Co. began operations at Baynards making batteries and pesticides. Activity on site ceased in 2005 leaving 80 acres of highly toxic wasteland and buildings behind.
Buckland Sand & Silica
Buckland Sand and Silica Works was founded in 1925 and was once the source of fine sands for the British glass and industry, but closed in the 1990s following a change of ownership.
Clock House Brickworks
Clock House Brickworks was established in the 1930s as a factory for ceramic blocks. In 1945 it was acquired by London Brick who switched production to multi-stock bricks. Under Hanson from 1984, the brickworks enjoyed considerable success but 25 years later was forced to close by the recession.
Cocking Limeworks
Limeburning at Cocking started before 1830, but the present works was built in 1920s to supply lime to the local brick industry and continued producing until 1999.
Crychydd Woollen Mill
A small but industrious mid-Victorian woollen mill which ran one of the first public electricity schemes in Wales and once sent products all over Britain.
Esgair-Mwyn Lead and Zinc Mines
This small lead and zinc concern stopped underground mining in the 1920s, but the tips continued to be worked until 1994, making it Wales' last lead mining operation.
Ewhurst Brick Works
Established in the 1920s by the firm of A. Hone, Ewhurst produced stock bricks of Weald Clay until its closure in the 1980s.
Forton Graveyard of Ships
The remains of small a shipbreaking business comprising dozens of derelict vessels; minesweepers, trawlers, gunboats, landing craft and more, all decaying slowly into the harbour mud.
Laporte Earths
A hellish maze of conveyors, silos, calciners, mills and pipes used to produce granular fuller's earth for the chemical, woollen and pet-litter industries.
Nutbourne Brickworks
A substantial 1930s brickworks comprising dryers, moulding sheds, milling plant, a smithy, canteen and the remains of a narrow gauge railway system.
Pont Llanio Milk Factory
A factory and distribution depot set up by the Milk Marketing Board in 1937 to process milk from local farms. Closed in 1970, it has stood empty for nearly half a century.
Sharpenhurst Reservoir
A small Edwardian reservoir supplying a local school, drained of water and undergoing conversion to a recording studio.
Swallow's Tiles Ltd.
A well-preserved small-scale Victorian tile and terra-cotta works which produced handmade clay tiles in the traditional way until forced to close in 2008.
Weyburn Engineering Works
A large rural factory established in 1913 which made precision components for cars, trucks, aeroplanes and even tanks for over 90 years but closed in 2008 following the bankruptcy of its American owners.
Willington Cooling Towers
These massive hyperboloid cooling towers, the so-called five brothers of Willington, are the last remnant of two enormous coal-fired power stations which together could produce 125 MW of electricity
Wonham Mill
An eighteenth century flour mill and mill house, much extended in 1914. It was bought by developers in 2007 but mysteriously abandoned mid-conversion.
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Religious
Bedham Mission Church
A tiny abandoned church, also doubling as a schoolroom, hidden in the backwoods of the Sussex Weald.
The Convent of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
A Victorian convent which was home to a closed community of Carmelite nuns until 1994.
Kingswood Wesleyan Chapel
A large Victorian chapel built in the suburbs of Bristol, one of the birthplaces of modern Methodism. Now little more than a burnt out shell.
Church of St. Matthew, Goginan
A small church established as a mission of Llanbadarn Fawr in 1871 and closed at an unknown date within the last 15 years.
St. Michael's Church, Llanfihangel Penbedw
A small parish church with mediæval origins, much altered in Victorian times and then abandoned in the 1970s.
Capel Troedyrhiw
An impressive yet understated Victorian Welsh Independent chapel furnished with carved woodwork, stained glass and cast iron, abandoned as congregations and fortunes declined in the early 21st century.
Welsh Martyrs' Church
An striking modernist church plagued by problems with the flat roof caused by the damp Welsh weather which forcwed it to close in 2008.
Whitefield's Tabernacle
An historic nonconformist church established by Methodist pioneers George Whitefield and John Cennick in 1741.
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Research & Education
Atmospheric Station 'F'
A small atmospheric research station built in the 1950s to monitor meteorological phenomena and test scientific instruments for a local university.
St Michael's Orphanage or Jameah Islameah School
A redbrick gothic orphanage designed by Edward Pugin, St Michael's later served as a Catholic Seminary, a school of Ballet and an Islamic school which became the centre of a high profile police raid following intelligence reports of terrorist training camps being held in the grounds. Though the main building still serves as a Muslim community, the old chapel has been left to decay.
Tangley Place
A Victorian mansion and later laboratories used by the M.A.F.F. as a field station for animal testing.
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The Derelict Miscellany: website and all content © D. A. Gregory unless stated to be otherwise.