Thorpe Marsh Power Station, Doncaster, July 2011

Thorpe Marsh Power Station July 2011

Introduction:

Firstly I'd like to welcome you to the first post in my site report section, these reports are here for me informally tell you my story, in a way that I can't do on the 28 days later forum, for site history and a formal discussion about the sites, I will leave a link back to that report. What you will find here is a description of my personal thoughts and feelings as we explore each site individually. The original report: 28dl Thorpe Marsh Report Around about dinner time, on the 24th of July 2011, I find myself stood by a great gaping hole in the side of an old chain link fence, seriously contemplating my next move... There's no cameras, no sign of any security and yet I still feel a strange sense of fear, fear of the unknown? A fear of getting caught? Probably a mixture of the two, at the same time I can feel my heart pumping and adrenaline and excitement building, before I knew it I found myself clumsily climbing through the fence and sprinting across the open rubble toward the closest cooling tower. Once inside, I pulled out my trust Sony point and shoot camera and began snapping away grabbing as many shots as I could! I found myself darting in and out of the structures using anything I could as cover, cover from what or who, I don't know!? Upon completing a full circle of the site, I began running back toward my moped (These where the days before I had a car or DSLR!) making sure to capture a few exterior shots as I did so. As I climbed back out of the hole in the fence and on to the road I felt a sudden and great sense of relief, and I had a massive smile on my face having just completed my first 'explore', getting in and out in one piece and without capture! Looking back now, it all sounds a little pathetic, I mean if anywhere was a safe explore it was Thorpe Marsh Power Station, the locals used to walk their dogs around there! But for me at the time, these where my first steps into a bigger and more exciting world, and in a strange way it felt almost like I'd completed a sort of initiation into the world of urban exploration. Pictures: Sadly the remains of Thorpe Marsh where demolished in 2012, which in a way makes these images even more prominent now. I guess this is why I do what I do, I explore what's here today, because it might not be here tomorrow!

Darting in and out of the cooling towers in the boiling hot July sun, fantastic...

Inside the tower's were equally as impressive...

Other than the towers a few other bits of interest also remained, the old coal drops and a lot of old railway signalling could also be found.

And finally, the old gypsum plant.

And so there you have it, my very first explore, back in 2011, I think it was quite a good way to start off to be fair, Thorpe Marsh was a pretty interesting and very significant explore! It certain fulled my hunger for more too, even though my next proper explore would be a year later!

Cheers for reading,

Michael (TAW)