Tales of the Urban Explorer: Stephenson Group Ltd
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.
![IMG_9295.jpg](https://images.hive.blog/768x0/https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/slobberchops/23tvgEFLMFEi6vcDiRXDe6Mtczzw6ttFADzPZWb5cnTvPr23YENyVQ476dZMQ3BEKuR9e.jpg)
...'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.
![IMG_9308.jpg](https://images.hive.blog/768x0/https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/slobberchops/23uQiGZd1B1rbgLEgt56hpF7aetKQuRkbbKTxVuPtWUVn1XxEezQeY5FvhgZNLMX8qs1j.jpg)
...'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!
![IMG_9305.jpg](https://images.hive.blog/768x0/https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/slobberchops/EoGxWHLVTJPnxcCzPgVnW14JRnpRUfhJveab1dDJoLAUjBMeDf8RygTLreNc1dXSpX6.jpg)
...''''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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![CurieCurator.jpg](https://images.hive.blog/768x0/https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/slobberchops/f5zec6UG-CurieCurator.jpg)
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Fantastic colouring in this place, I agree too that a little processing makes committees like that pop just that little bit more. I use to have a couple of actions presaged in Photoshop to process my pics. One was a simple curves tweak followed by an unsharp mask then a save. I had another which compressed the file too all with just ahotkey command. Dang, I miss Photoshop!!
It makes all the difference, but takes a load of work! When there's 50 or so to do.. it's tedious. I will get that batch converter add-on soon.
I do like a bit of batch conversion. Once you start that you wonder what took you so long!
I have a few more that are 50-60 images, I'm not going through all that again manually. The software will be mine!
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I use Irfanview to resize all of my images down to something that will load better for people. It has a batch processing tool so I don't have to do each image one by one. It is pretty cool and it is free. If your new program you found doesn't resize you could add that step to your process. This looks like a really cool site. It reminds me of something out of the game Fallout. Very cool!
I use Infraview to manually resize images for my ebay sales. They insist.. 'buyers love big images' to so I have to use it. It's a handy tool.
I use Aurora HDR for the filter, but it's lacking the batch option. I'm working on acquiring a newer version.
Stephenson was a cool place, more too see that usual being a chemical company. We didn't see a soul while in there.
Wau it is a large building that is filled with many touches of art really very beautiful
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What a FANTASTIC post @slobberchops!!! As for getting behind, you are not the only one... I took a bit of a break from posting and engaging over the December period as this is when we have our end of year 7 week holidays and I must say that the guilt of not being around nearly ate me alive lol... however, I was realistic enough to acknowledge that I needed the time off!
Back to your post. WOAH - what a place! Having been a drug user in my younger years that pic of the needles hit home quite hard (even though I never got as far as the likes of heroine), plenty of my "friends" did and thinking back, it actually blows my mind - the squalor in which we all lived. Seeing that photo hit an emotional nerve and made me quite sad and simultaneously grateful that I had the strength to walk away from it all.
You really did grab some magnificent shots in this one! I especially liked this one... it would make a super oil painting!!!
Oh and speaking of catching up... I still need to do the second part of my #truestories submission. My end of year got somewhat derailed by tragedy but will get going on it again soon! I can just imagine all the vibrant flecks of colour and the texture!
Hope you are well and had a super festive season too! :)
Thanks for the visit @jaynie. I think we have all tried substances at one time or another, I know I have. The downer was always enough to deter me from the next session for at least a month.
There was never any of this addiction to me. Bradford seem full of needles wherever I look. I didn't do mine in places like this, just a friends house who's parents didn't seem to care if we were spaced out or not hehe...
Look forward to your next #truestories, I also havent done one for a while and have a drug one planned. It's all about time isn't it?
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Evidence would suggest someone sat there and pissed himself...
It could be or it might be blood. I see this scene in many places... the chair just sitting there in a middle of a large area.
Or it could be that the torturer was approaching and someone did piss himself. The stories those walls could tell us.
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