April.

Managed to cross off two sites in April that I'd had my eye on for ages. The first being Ernest Wright, scissor manufacturers, and the second being the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Woodhouse.


I'd already had a solo attempt at Kutrite one night which ended in failure, but another idea I had about access paid off on a revisit with jazzywheelz, and we managed to squeeze our way in.
We were both very underwhelmed by the place, in fact jw didn't even get his camera out. I felt it was worth documenting as it's such an important site for Sheffield's industrial heritage.



In the 1970s, Sheffield boasted no less than 150 small scissor-making companies. Now there are just two. One of those companies, established in 1902, is Ernest Wright & Son (known as the more ‘modern’ Kutrite from the 60's up until the last few years). The other is William Whiteley & Sons.


Ernest Wright and Son, had only three skilled scissor-makers left at the start of 2010 but found a 20 year old apprentice to carry on their work and ensure the art of scissor making is not consigned to history. They moved to new premises on Broad lane, the first time in a long time that the company had not been located on Kelham Island and the company found a new lease of life. Not fantastic news for an explorer, as they took anything of interest with them in the move, but great news for the company and Sheffield’s industrial heritage.
Two great articles on Ernest Wright can be found here and here. The history page of their website is also interesting.

After spending far longer than was necessary at Kutrite, we headed over to Ecclesfield to check out the Working Men's Club, which was sealed tight, as well as a couple of other bits and pieces on the way, before heading back to Woodhouse to investigate a possible access to the church which there had been far too much daylight/people around for earlier in the evening.

Given it's location, we really struggled to light the place without alerting everyone in town to our presence. jw got some pretty decent shots in the end (see his post in this thread) but I wasn't happy with mine at all. It was just too fucking dark, and the D70 hates anything above iso200 or 30 second exposure!

I managed to get back around a week later at sunrise, and I'm really glad I did - the light was fantastic and really made the place very photogenic.

Video of a tranny...

...as promised. Not fantastic quality, but not too bad for my phone I guess.

A bridge too far...

January and February have been frustrating months derp-wise, with every possible lead proving to be sealed tight or a dead end.
I was determined to have at least some success before February was out, and after being given strict instructions to leave the house one night by Mrs K, I decided a blast up the M1 was in order to cross the big blue beast that is the Middlebrough Transporter Bridge off my list. jazzywheelz had already expressed an interest in climbing it, and with only two days notice he was able to pull some strings and join me for the trip.

I did consider cancelling, right up until the last minute, as the Manflu was really kicking my arse, but these things tend to be now or never in my experience; I'd already been stood at the foot of the bridge once, around 18 months previous and hadn't pulled it off; I didn't want to let the opportunity pass by again.

Doing my best not cough up rancid brown mucus all over everything, and with jazz no doubt holding his breath for most of the journey, I floored it up the motorway in the direction of Teesside, expecting to hit the snow that had been threatening at any moment. Wondering whether or not she would be lit up tonight we caught a glimpse of blue metal shining brightly over the distant buildings.  As it turned out, the lights actually made it a bitch to expose our shots properly up there... And by the time we'd climbed back down, the lights had been switched off so we managed to not get any shots of it lit up from the ground...

Access was relatively easy, and more or less how I'd envisaged it would be. The same can't be said for getting back off the thing; if you're not massively comfortable with heights, like me, then it's an absolute shitter.

Props to Gone for insight.

Possible video to follow, if my phone's done a half decent job...

'Tis the season...

There a quite a few tall, or relatively tall, buildings in Sheffield, all with roofs just waiting to be shot by the budding photographer/explorer.
Unfortunately, on the cold wet December night me and jazzywheels headed out to try and hit said rooftops, they were all inaccessible.

After much walking, and probably even more standing around in the ice-cold wind waiting for Joe Public and Mr Secca to fuck off, we found ourselves outside the derp known as Sheffield Central Post Office (Sheffield Central Derp Office). Access was comedy despite not being very friendly to my delicate bruised plums, then we hit the only spot inside worth seeing – the infamous staircase - before finally getting our, albeit not very high, rooftop fix.

A little over 24 hours later and I’m once again stood in the cold and drizzle, wondering why the fuck I’m not in bed, this time outside the old Sheffield Courts.
I met up with a couple of lads from the Other Side of The Hills to get some daylight shots of the courthouse. I’ve been a few times now but only managed it at night so had been desperate to get some decent daytime shots in there. After Camera Shy asked whether I’d be able to check the access before they made the drive over from Manc, I decided to invite myself along.

It was tourists day out in there with at least 7 lads, all stumbling round trying to shit each other up, in before sunrise. We congregated in Court Number 1, and waited for daylight, before heading our separate ways to grab our shots and wade through rain sodden mounds of pigeon shit.

Previously...

I start this blog with good intentions. Let's see how long the novelty lasts.

To bring you, Constant Reader (as one of my favourite authors would refer to you), up to speed and avoid a 'cold opening': a summary of the year's activities so far.

Culverts, steel works, the odd ROC post, numerous derps, Grade II concrete monstrosities, and a couple of roof tops.
October was quite a busy month for me, exploring-wise, including taking in the sights from some of Sheffield's rooftops and spending more time than is healthy at Woollens the signmakers, soaking up the derp.

Early November I packed myself off to the clinic to have the owd tubes snipped (I've made enough babies now thank you very much) and have since spent a fortnight with my feet up and an icepack firmly strapped to my groin. Hoping to get back out soon, as in the meantime I've been updating my ever increasing List - you know the one Mr Explorer, you have one too - and I'm desperate to start crossing shit off.

Random shots for now: