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14|05|08

Fellow explorer Stuart Dobson has scanned the entire Engine Test Facilities brochure; page after page describing the history of Pyestock, the air supply installations, the engine test facilities, data gathering techniques and the electrical, steam, water and fuel survices. I've converted to these scans to webpages, and enhanced the hundred archival pictures of Pyestock along with the schematics, engineering diagrams and cross sections of the key plant and gear.

This document gives a definitive account of the facilities available at Pyestock in the early 1980s.

Over the next few updates, I'll merge all the data into other parts of the website, correct and expand the existing write-ups, and then continue with my pictorial record of Pyestock.

The introductory page of the Engine Test Facilities is here.

24|03|08

After receiving an e-mail about the Computer Building, I decided to postpone my documentation of the Plant House until the next update. The Computer Building appears to have changed not only in function, but also in form, over the years.

"Very glad that you have taken the time to document Pyestock and some of its history before that monstrous devil Tesco obliterates it for ever. I sincerely hope they do not get their way. 61,000 vehicle movements a week into the Pyestock site will destroy the local environment for miles around."

"I spent almost ten years at Pyestock starting as an apprentice, going on to work in Cells 1 & 2, Cell 3, Cell 4 and the Computer Building. I was an electronics technician covering fuel systems, telemetry, data acciquisition in those cells and eventually computers in building 574."

"I remember those years with fond memories of the whole site in full operation with things steaming, creaking, roaring, Concorde engines in Cell 4, Harrier engines and secret Russian things in Cells 1 & 2. Cell 5 being built, RB211 engines and whole Sea King helicopters in Cell 3 West. Battle House roaring away providing steam to the Plant House, and running the site in reverse during the miners strike putting many megawatts of electricity back into the National Grid during the 3 day week, and of being an apprentice and getting an engineering training second to none."

"It's a shame that parts of the site cannot be kept for some form of modern museum to a jet engine aircraft industry that in it's day was a world leader. Frank Whittle and Power Jets Ltd were apparently an instrumental part of the original Pyestock scene, one of his engines stood in the reception area for many many years." - Mike

Mike also drew a ground floor plan of the Computer Building showing the positioning of the various computers and the function of each of the rooms.

As it has a close association with the Computer Building, I've also documented Monk's Tunnel and other other tunnels nearby.

The rest of the DERA documentation specifying the capabilities of some of the test cells has now been uploaded. There's an introduction along with specifications for the Admirality Test House, Cell 2, Cell 3 and Cell 3 West.

I've written up my third trip to Pyestock which took place exactly a year ago today.

David has written in with several additions and corrections concerning the boilers of the Battle Test House so it's worth taking the walkthrough again to read those. He's also supplied some diagrams of the Admiralty 3-Drum Boiler and Forced Draught Blower.

19|01|08

"Like most of my colleagues who worked at Pyestock we had a great time and had many friends and enjoyed the varied work immensely. It is nice to see that someone has taken the time to put something together to document the site and what it could do." - Nigel

Further additions to the Admiralty Test Cell include more details about some of the rooms on the ground floor (and a couple of extra pictures). I've also uploaded some DERA technical information about the ATH.

Ric wrote in about how Pyestock's unique atmosphere affected the plant life.

The Main Stores gets a full write-up. I wouldn't ususally spend so much time on such a relatively insignificant building (especially when compared to the rest of Pyestock) but its current contents are definitely worthy of mention.

"I just found your site and wanted to share my appreciation for what you have done here. I was an apprentice at Pyestock from 1978-1982, in fact my class was the largest of all the years with 24 apprentices. After my apprenticeship ended I spent two more years there before moving on."

"I am kind of glad that I was not around to see the demise of this once great and still historic site. Even today I still think back and wonder what happened to all the characters I knew when I worked there. Even then we still explored the older buildings with a sense of wonder, one day we even found some of Sir Frank Whittle's old test parts and papers which were restored and put on display in the main office building (don't know what happened to them since)."

"Even though your site left me feeling a little sad I was glad that it will not be forgotten."

"Today I am working as a manufacturing engineer at Boeing in America building the new 787." - David Peason

Architectural glossy Blueprint Magazine recently published an excellent piece about urban exploration. Whilst it's great to be mentioned by name, it also provides a handy historical background of the UK urban exploration scene.

Sister website, urbex|uk, has been invited by the British Library to be archived as part of the UK Web Archiving Consortium: "The British Library would like to invite you to participate in this work by allowing us to archive your web site under the terms of the appended licence. We select sites to represent aspects of UK documentary heritage and as a result, they will remain available to researchers in the future. We aim to subsequently include the archived copy of your web site in our permanent collections." This means that the Pyestock pages on that site (which are included here as the Pyestock Diaries) will be archived by the Consortium as a historical record.

21|11|07

The shell of the Admiralty Test House comes alive thanks to comments from Pete who ran part of the facility (and was able to give names and functions to the various rooms). It's worth taking the interior walkthrough again.

You may have noticed an animated diagram of the WR21 project tests (which I'm assured is now declassified). This was provided by Chris who ran Cell 3 West for ten years and the Admiralty Test House WR21 project for two years. He's supplied further diagrams of Cell 3 West which really help show how the cell worked.

Plus a bibliography has been added to documentation section.

13|09|07

The third entry of the Pyestock Diaries is now online. Your Guess Is As Good As Mine is an account of our second trip to the site.

11|09|07

The Pyestock Diaries continue with an account of sitting around and fretting, plus a rant against the current vogue for "macro" photography.

And I've published my essay on urban exploration for the Construction History Society. It's partly concerned with my plans for Pyestock (which ultimately lead to this website).

The first entries have been added to the Links section.

08|09|07

The Virtual Tour section is complete. Feel free to explore. This provides a historical background of Pyestock, together with brief descriptions of the key buildings on the site.

More detailed descriptions of the buildings will be added to The Buildings section in due course. At the moment, the Power Station is the first building to get a full write up, but you’ll find further information on all the key buildings in this section.

If you're in need of a map of Pyestock, then I've drawn one up here.

Plus the Pyestock Diaries have begun with the first entry.

I hope you enjoy the site. Keep checking back. There's much more to come.

Simon Cornwell