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Alphabetical Index
By County : By Type

A B C D E F G H-I J K L M N O P-R S T U-V W-Z

A
Abingworth Nurseries
A long-disused mushroom farm hiding an unexpected potpourri manufacturing outfit. A victim of cheap imports and changing tastes. (Sussex)

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. (Sussex)

Atmospheric Station 'F'
A small atmospheric research station built in the 1950s to monitor meteorological phenomena and test scientific instruments for a local university. (Undisclosed)

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B
Barrow Hospital
A hospital designed in the 1930s to be a progressive centre for treating diseases of the mind. The outbreak of war in 1939 meant that work was never finished and the half-completed hospital served for 75 years until closure in 2006. (Somerset)

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 heavily contaminated wasteland and buildings. (Surrey)

Bedham Mission Church
A tiny abandoned church, also doubling as a schoolroom, hidden in the backwoods of the Sussex Weald. (Sussex)

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. (Sussex)

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. (Surrey)

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C
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. (Sussex)

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. (Surrey)

Cocking Limeworks
Limeburning at Cocking started before 1830, but the present works was built in 1920s to supply lime to the local brick industry. The demand for lime bricks had disappeared by the 1980s but the works continued producing until 1999. 15 years later, the site is slowly being reclaimed for nature. (Sussex)

Convent of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
A Victorian convent which was home to a closed community of Carmelite nuns until 1994. Once vacated, the austere cells and halls housed migrant agricultural workers for a time before being abandoned and then devastated by deliberate fire in 2009. (Sussex)

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. (Surrey)

Cranleigh Brick and Tile Works.
See under Baynards Works above.

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. In 1962 the mill closed for the last time and has been frozen in time ever since. (Undisclosed)

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D
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. (Surrey)

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. (Surrey)

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. (Surrey)

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E
The Epsom Cluster
A 'mini-site' charting the rise, decline, abandonment and redevelopment of West Park, St. Ebba's, Horton, Long Grove and the Manor; the five great Edwardian 'asylums' which made up Britain's largest concentration of mental patients for nearly a century. (Surrey)

Esgair-Mŵn Lead and Zinc Mines
This small lead and zinc concern has had a long and sometimes turbulent history including bankruptcy, legal battles and an armed takeover. Underground mining stopped here in the 1920s, but the tips continued to be worked until 1994, making this Wales' last lead mining operation. (Cardiganshire)

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. Since then, it has become a favourite haunt for graffiti artists and a haven for wildlife. (Surrey)

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F
Federal Mogul Camshafts
See under Weyburn Works below.

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. (Hampshire)

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Fraser Gunnery Range
A disused Naval gunnery school, missile range and Admiralty RADAR Research Establishment which closed in 2006. (Hampshire)

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G
Lost Gardens
A brief history of the rise and decline of the country house garden and a compilation of pictures of gardens in decay. (Various)


H-I
Hollywood or Horton 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. After closure in 2003, it was badly damaged by an arson attack and what was left became the target of local vandals. (Surrey).

Horton Hospital
One of the Epsom Cluster of Mental Hospitals built in the first years of the 20th Century, Horton pioneered music therapy, malaria research and the treatment of sex offenders but closed in 2002. Most was demolished or converted but the chapel and superintendent's house remain untouched. (Surrey)

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J
Jameah Islameah School
See under St Michael's Orphanage below.

K
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. (Gloucestershire)

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L
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. Closed in 1997, at its peak the factory employed 800 men. (Surrey)

Lawns
See under Baynards Works above.

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M
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 (Brecknockshire)

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. (Surrey)

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N
Nutbourne Brickworks
A substantial 1930s brickworks comprising dryers, moulding sheds, milling plant, a smithy, canteen and the remains of a narrow gauge railway system. (Surrey)

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O
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. (Surrey)

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P-R
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. (Cardiganshire)

Purdown: Bristol No. 6 H.A.A. Battery
The bunkers, magazines and gun mounts of Purdown 'Percy' 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. (Bristol)

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S
St. Ebba's Hospital
See under Epsom Cluster above.

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. (Sussex)

HMS St. George
See under Fraser Range above.

St. Joseph's College
See under St. Michael's Orphanage below.

St. Matthew's Mission Church
A small church established as a mission of Llanbadarn Fawr in 1871. Currently awaiting conversion to a 4 bedroom house. (Cardiganshire)

St. Michael's Parish Church, Llanfihangel Penbedw
A small parish church whose community has all but disappeared. Extensive alterations in Victorian times did nothing to halt the diminishing congregation and it was abandoned in the 1970s. (Pembrokeshire)

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. (Sussex)

Sharpenhurst Reservoir
A small Edwardian reservoir supplying a local school, drained of water and undergoing conversion to a recording studio. (Sussex)

Steep Park
A rambling Victorian mansion built by a London jeweller. In the 1950s, it was bought the artisan son of an Andalusian duquesa and his wife who lived there until the turn of the millennium. (Sussex)

Swallow's Tiles Ltd.
A well-preserved small-scale Victorian tile works which produced handmade clay tiles and terra-cotta mouldings until 2008.
(Surrey)

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T-V
Tangley Place Field Station
A rambling Victorian mansion once home to a wealthy tobacco heiress, acquired by the MAFF in 1958 as a field research station. (Surrey)

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. (Surrey)

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. (Carmarthenshire)

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W-Z
Whitefield's Tabernacle
An historic nonconformist church established by Methodist pioneers George Whitefield and John Cennick in 1741. (Gloucestershire).

Welsh Martyrs' Church
A striking modernist church plagued by problems with the flat roof caused by the damp Welsh weather until it was forced to close in 2008. (Cardiganshire).

West Park Hospital
A sprawling redbrick complex built to house London's insane, West Park opened in 1924, the last of the Epsom Cluster of psychiatric hospitals. (Surrey).

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. (Surrey)

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. (Derbyshire)

Wonham Mill
An eighteenth century flour mill and mill house, much extended in 1914 and later used by an agricultural merchant's business. (Betchworth)

Worms Heath Igloo 2 H.A.A. Battery
An anti-aircraft gun site built in the early years of the Cold War to provide artillery-based defence against Russian bombers. (Surrey)

Worplesdon Laboratory
See under Tangley Place above.

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