Tunstall Court, Hartlepool, July 2012

Tunstall Court, Hartlepool, July 2012

Introduction:

Tunstall Court in Hartlepool was the next place that I properly explored after Thorpe Marsh, I visited with James (Borolad on 28) and Andrew (Non member) after watching the famous Steetly chimney come down earlier on in the day. Upon arrival, Tunstall Court didn't look too promising, and looking back from where I am now, I guess it wasn't really, but been my second explore, the excitement of what might lay within was still very much there!

It's strange how quickly myself and James had gotten over the initial fear of exploring, I'd done Thorpe Marsh and he'd done Thornaby TMD, Doncaster and Middlesbrough respectively, I guess you could say we'd thrown ourselves in at the deep end a little when you think most people start off with an abandoned warehouse or barn... Anyway, we casually strolled through the grounds heading toward the court, a board lay on the ground and access was found almost immediately through the smashed window it was covering. The smell of dereliction then hit me, a smell I'm now well used to it is a smell that's quite hard to explain though, I guess the smell of damp and rotting wood is the best way to explain it. Once inside we got our tripods and torches out and began to move slowly through the building, checking each room for any signs of life as we passed, the sound of rubble and glass crunching underfoot. Once we'd checked the ground floor, we headed down stairs into the basement, the amount of dust in the air down there was quite concerning, fortunately we had both purchased a pair of ex British Army S10 Respirators the day before, in anticipation of our explore, so we donned masks and continued downwards. It was clear upon inspection that although we where currently alone, the local junkies or homeless where using this place on a night, there where signs of fires everywhere, discarded drinks cans and syringes, even a sleeping bag. Even more strange where the luminous green footprints we found down there, weird!

Anyway, we where happy that we where alone and began shooting after agreeing to make sure we where out an hour before dark. The ground floor, barring the staircase was pretty boring, the place was trashed, scorch marks from previous attempts at arson where everywhere. Upstairs was a different story though, although the building didn't hold any furnishings the architecture was great, ships and figures sculpted in plaster, stain glass windows and tilled walls, it was easy to get a feel of what they place must have been like in its hey day with the use of a little imagination. After a couple of hours photographing the place where interrupted by a police raid! Even to this day that was one of our closest calls, and who'd of thought in a place as trashed as this one was! Fortunately we spotted the Police before they spotted us, we threw our kit together and dashed out of the buildings rear entrance. Upon walking back round the building we saw and unmarked Ford Focus and several offices wandering around the property radioing one another. We asked a passing local if they knew what was going on, apparently it happened often here, the police would conduct random raids in the hope of catching drug dealers or users red handed. We watched and waited for a while before deciding we'd seen enough, we caught the train from Hartlepool back to Middlesbrough all of us buzzing over the pictures, the explore and the chase!

Sadly, but inevitably the Court was demolished in early 2014.

Pictures:

Might as well start off with an exterior photo, as you can see access wasn't exactly, errmmm, challenging...

Once inside we came across rooms similar to this one, bare, but the celings still held some of the elegant plaster work.

The Stair Case, ruined by the time we got here, but still looking pretty beautiful...

We then moved down into the basement, this area was quite interesting plenty of rooms tucked away and the service tunnels seemed to go on forever...

We then went upstairs, it was here as mentioned that most of the interesting stuff remained...

Andrew in his element...

I didn't own a wide angle back then but at least I was on a DSLR by this point (Nikon D3000) this was the best I could get of the decorations in the mainhall, impressive non the less!