These South Yorkshire explorations were not improving. If they were not already demolished, then they were in a state of partial demolition. Why can't they leave them be until at least the day after we had been and had a look around?
Most selfish, I say; just a personal opinion and statement.
‘Askern Saw Mills’ would have truly been an industrial explore if it had been all there, but sadly our initial view through the fencing to inspect the former fencing business told us otherwise.
From what I can gather, the site has been vacant since 2013, and yet my eyes were telling me that at least some demolition had taken place. When is another question?
Occasionally, they run out of 'flattening money' and this results in what I am about to show you.
Driving up to the front gate is something I rarely do, especially when there’s a bunch of cameras in varying states of disrepair. Did any of them work? Probably not looking beyond, but you never can tell.
Besides this, it was a climb over an unforgiving fence, and that's after you wade through the moat surrounding it. Drainage of excess water, I can see, was never a priority at 'Askern Saw Mills'.
We skirted the fencing, noting the sign...
…’no dumping your shit, but you can come in and have a look around if you can get past me’…
While that’s not a direct interpretation, that’s the vibe I was getting.
The front gate was quite doable, but both @anidiotexplores and I prefer the sneaky way in if possible and next to it was a public park, perfect!
Even so, this was quite a climb for a shitty-arse explore that's been apparently left for ten years or so. I used a park tree and had a drop of around 8 feet from far side to deal with, while @anidiotexplores used some kind of tunnel he found to crawl through.
Neither was particularly easy, and I wondered how I was going to get out. That would be an exit problem and not a worry for now.
This is after we sidelined a local busybody who seemed quite intent on figuring out what we were up to. Fortunately, said Karen was easily distracted by the local park pond and got bored after a couple of minutes.
We were inside, out of sight and could wander ‘Askern Saw Mills’ freely, we hoped.
This upper decrepit building is the tunnel @anidiotexplores crawled through with handy built-in ladders to climb down. He opted for this escape route in his exit.
Inside was a bleak, meandering wilderness of barely standing 'tin' flimsy buildings. If we could get in that 'thing', could we take more than a single step before exiting vertically and breaking at least one leg?
There was no way up there, so the temptation to try was not on the cards.
We peered into the distance to see more of the same bullshit. Simple outdoor storage areas designed to keep your gear dry unless the rain and wind was particularly driving.
On finding a building we could enter, little was to be seen besides piles of bricks and the pieces of fallen roofing. This was not going to be the most exciting explore.
Askern Service Centre, your days are sadly over and finished.
Yes, there was an upstairs complete with holes, and amazingly, stairs that were sturdy, but unless you had a fetish for worn moss-encrusted pallets, hard-on's were out of the question.
Metal stairs, always the best type for explorers, despite the stairs part being wood and susceptible to collapsing under your weight.
…’@andiotexplores scrambles over to the next building in case there’s something great and radical waiting for him inside’…
It’s a sad state of affairs when this is the most interesting view. At least the spelling is correct.
Most definitely a no-go area; I was thankful for the helpful warning bollard, as I might have had a piss by mistake and wet myself.
Along with outside storage areas, we now have an indoor one.
Looking toward the entrance gate, and its flooded grounds, an area best left alone.
While there's more than one way to get past this obstacle and enter the jewelled epicentre of 'Askern Saw Mills', only one of those ways was feasible.
The prize was mangled car parts and some scrawled graffiti of questionable quality.
Even the tractor is not going to ride again anytime soon.
While this isn't as atmospheric as being there, the wind was making these flapping roof parts screech and groan like banshees. Most definitely the highlight, but speaking pictorially, quite dull.
I excitedly pointed out the 'Crane' sign. Well.. we wouldn't want to miss this shot.. right?
Fucking hell, was it really that bad? It was August 2023, and my memory is slowly fading... so forgive me.
After a leg-up from @anidiotexplores, I heaved my way back up the wall and disappeared back into the park gloom.
Thankfully, there was no sign of the interfering nosy cunt that was intent on breaking open our entrance strategy. I was in no mood for shitheads and sighed with relief.
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