Tales of the Urban Explorer: Stephenson Group

I’m getting a little behind with my Urbex stories, I can see from the file stamps on these images of October 2019 that I need to get posting.

Some of them are huge and contain a lot of images, I guess a few are not going to make it beyond my hard drive.

The bottleneck is the time taken to process images one-by-one. I used to leave them as-is but there is a huge improvement if one filters them. I’ll let you judge my remarks about this.

Having organised a full Sunday to see ‘The sights of Bradford’ with @goblinknackers yet again, we drove past Stephenson Group without too much hope, having failed to penetrate its doors just 9 months ago with @mender1 in tow.

I was half expecting it to be re-developed into flats by now as part of it was covered up and boasting about just this in January 2019.

Not so, and it looked just the same except this time we found a way in. Enough said about this.

Passing through a jungle-like environment which is something you need to get used to when pursuing this hobby, we gained entrance and stared about the place.

It is a huge old factory and the company appear to still be trading, just not here anymore!

From what I'm reading the company was bought in 2014 and that could have been the end for this particular 'branch'

Six years of neglect does not bode well for buildings, and so we started having a rummage through to see what visual delights a manufacturing chemical company could reveal to us.

I figured the ceiling could do with a lick of paint and had to duck as someone came shuffling past the outside of the building.

One glance to the left and he would have spotted me. Luckily it was some misfit pisshead from the night before intent on downing cider from his bottle wrapped in brown paper.

...'careful..., you never know what ghouls hide up there'...

We generally work from the bottom up, the basement being next after the ground floor. It's a kind of standard work through.

The ground floor revealed the ‘needle crew’ had been in getting spaced out. It seems to be a recurring problem in this city.

The date states 2011, some remnants of the past had been left behind, looks they were involved in solar technology.

As we finished on the ground floor, the basement was was waiting. These are generally creepy places, pitch black and not to be done alone.

I’m glad we dared to visit as this was probably the highlight of this old building.

...'don't do this alone unless your have nerves of steel, water drips constantly and every sound is amplified. It's a strange creepy experience that takes some getting used too'...

Caustic potash, sounds lovely!

...''''I offered @goblinknackers ten quid to drink one of these potions but he declined, I thought that was a fair offer?'...

There always seems to be an old chair hanging around in these large empty rooms. Nice and handy to tie up your victim ready for torture.

Is it me who only thinks like this? One day I’ll be running from these torturers as my mental image becomes reality.

UltraChem was a popular item once; all of these large tins were empty.

The stairs were relativity safe, just the odd step missing and nothing for the Health and Safety bods to get concerned about.

Red doors always intrigue me, horror films spring to mind.

Was this the lab? Look at that huge cauldron thing; I didn’t go too close as it looked a little toxic.

Further inspection proved conclusive. I didn’t want to end up like one of the degenerates from Street Trash.

As we climbed higher we saw more greenery. It does not take long for water to start dripping through thus causing chaos.

Some more Stephenson Group papers were hanging around, this time in protective sheeting. Wonder if this was due to the caustic nature of the goods?

Just look at those colours; moss, and water at its finest.

The top floor was a little dicey underfoot and to get to those safes and the gems contained within may mean death.

We didn’t bother in the end leaving all those riches behind for the next lot of explorers.

Passing this inconspicuous pipe I had to ask @goblinknackers if he had farted. The stench was quite unbearable and I almost passed out.

The pipe was some kind of sewage system and we quickly distanced ourselves.

Some of the floorings were concrete or stone and solid as it comes; others were flimsy, full of holes and deathly.

Stephenson Group was a huge explore and took us over an hour to get around all of it.

It’s also highly recommended if you’re passing by Bradford. There’s more to see than your average humdrum mill.

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