Return to Tilstock

Just in case you all missed it, I was featured in the Shropshire Star and the Shrewsbury Chronicle recently for my rooftops of Shrewsbury shots. I was quite surprised by the latter paper. I knew I was going to be in the Shropshire Star but when I saw my face on the front of the Chronicle, my jaw dropped. And consequentially, and in addition to my blended feelings of excitement and terror, my inboxes on various social media sites are full of positive messages, which isn't what one ever expects when they upload controversial content onto the internet, so thats good too.

Today we're looking at military sites in Shropshire. It began with a simple mission to see a ROC post but given that it was close to a few other explorable sites, Tree Surgeon and I made a day of it. 

ROC posts became something of a bandwagon here at Shrewsbury From Where You Are Not. That is, I explored two in Shropshire and wrote about it for ya'll only to find that the third that I found had actually been broken into. I don't condone forced entry. It's not what I do. The two I found were just open for anyone. I understand the appeal though, what with them being freakin' nuclear bunkers dotted around the countryside that millions of people walk past on a regular basis, none the wiser. And judging people is Gods job. And also the justice systems. But I decided to lay off the ROC posts for a while, out of fear that I'd be pointing a giant arrow at some poor landowners little secret. I think the idea of trashing a nuclear bunker is stupid, but it does happen. Just look at the one in Church Stretton.

Todays ROC post in the vicinity of RAF Tilstock. How exciting! And by "vicinity" keep in mind that if you try to walk around an old military site you could use a huge chunk of your day and still miss most of what is there to find. These places are huge. I made the silly mistake of checking out RAF Montford Bridge, RAF Rednal, RAF Tilstock and RAF Condover all in the space of a week, and by the time I was done, I wanted my feet amputated. It didn't help that I missed so much on initial visits and had to revisit when I realised that I'd missed things.

When Tree Surgeon and I got to the ROC post though, we were saddened to find it welded shut, and exterior features in pretty poor shape.
Also nearby were some long abandoned tents and sleeping bags... maybe the landowner had dragged the campers down there and sealed the door... Tilstock is a pretty creepy place and my imagination runs wild.

It's so strange to think that below this innocent looking field is a subterranean bunker, sealed off from everyone. Although the term Bunker is inaccurate. These were nuclear monitoring posts, being little more than an underground office with (barely) toilet facilities, from which those stationed there could monitor the usage of nuclear weapons. Should there be an attack these posts were equipped with beds so that they could serve as a bunker. Of course, the air vents meant that they'd suffer from radiation anyway, the equipment to work with was crude and the idea itself was flawed because they were linked up via telegraph pole, which would of course be annihilated in a nuclear strike. But they're still pretty cool, when one can get in them. Over a thousand exist across the UK but many are either locked up or demolished. Those that remain tend to be in poor condition. What a shame! Tree Surgeon, my fellow explorer, made an excellent point- If he owned land that happened to have a nuclear bunker on it and he didn't want it getting trashed, he'd just build a shed over it. Nobody would know.

And that goes for Battle HQs too!

Unlike a ROC post, the Battle HQ dates back to World War II and was basically where the defense of a military installation could be organized from in the event of an attack. They often consisted of a hatch leading to a monitoring post, similar to a Pillbox, with steps leading deeper to the offices and toilets, and a rear exit. Every airfield that dates back to World War II apparently has one, although Rednalls was demolished, Montford Bridges is in a garden (BUILD A SHED OVER IT!!!) and Condovers is in a very prickly bush and full of water.
Tilstocks was flooded too on my last visit, but I wanted to show Tree Surgeon anyway. He loves the military stuff. But no, whoever owns this land has decided to fill it with dirt.

I'm not happy. If you want to see what the interior looked like on my earlier visit, click here.

Seriously, if anyone here owns land that happens to have abandoned underground military buildings on it, and you don't want people going down there, just build a shed over it! Not only will you preserve something awesome but you'll also have the knowledge that you secretly own an underground military building. How cool is that?

Anyway, ever since my initial visit to RAF Tilstock I had wanted to revisit with a decent camera. And so I finally got around to it. RAF Tilstock is one of the creepiest places I've ever been to. It's basically a collection of abandoned military buildings scattered throughout some woods, and the surrounding area.

It really has a horror movie vibe to it, doesn't it?

As a bit of backstory, Tilstock opened in 1915 as a training base for the British army in trench warfare. It was designed to accomodate 30,000 people, and as the war progressed it became used for storage too, with its own railway depot on the Shrewsbury-Crewe line. A hospital was also added as casualties rose. Tilstocks size also led to the recruitment of Shropshires first female police officers, to arrest locals from trespassing onto the military site.

After the first world war, Tilstock remained property of the British government. In 1939 it was turned into an camp for Polish, Austrian and German refugees. As World War II picked up it also served as a prisoner of war camp.

The airfield was constructed in 1942 and was mainly used by the RAF for training. It retained this function after the war, but ceased military function in 1964 when the airfield became used for skydiving instead.
At least, part of it was. Most of the runways are now gone although one can still see where they once were. Only a portion of the collossal airfield is now used. The surrounding buildings are scattered around it, and I have probably only seen a portion of what there is to find.

Tree Surgeon seems to think this particular building was a pumping station. Fellow blogger Chelsea The Adventurer says it's haunted by ghosts who can't spell. She might be onto something...

This building was intriguing. I actually have a low-resolution map of Tilstock airfield which, while blurred in parts, does coherently list the functions of some of the buildings. Given that since the 1940s a lot has changed, new buildings have been built and some have been demolished. But we put it over Google Maps to ascertain where everything was. This was apparently a block of offices. Today it's an eerie emptied out building with numbered doors, and evidence of a kitchen at the back.

The last remaining artefact is a solitary plate.

The remaining ruins were clustered around the woods. This yellow walled building was apparently the "SLB Chamber." I have no idea what that is, but it had old rusty shelving units, and nails in the walls, presumably for hanging stuff, and some kind of ceiling harness.

And in a back room a (presumably) homeless person had made a bed.

My map of Retro Tilstock became quite out of focus on some of the other buildings, possibly due to a fold or something on the original scan. But the building below definitely looks like it may have had external doors to two lots of toilets or something.

Enquires. As you can see, if this place is haunted by ghosts who can't spell, it's definitely a trait they took with them from their time alive.

I have no idea what this bizarre cluster of bricks is. Did it once have a roof? But it would have been a teeny building unless several feet of wall was knocked down. But if that was the case, it seems improbable that it would all still be level. Perhaps the building itself was partially below ground and has now been filled in.

Moving on, one of the most photographed parts of Tilstock is the room with the car in. I've seen plenty of pictures of this car in one piece but today it is in several. Someone has tried to position the front and back together. Nobodies put the roof back on yet.

There are two very creepy bomb shelters where we took temporary refuge in as the weather took a turn for the worse. One of them had a couple of sleeping bags in, evidence that people did indeed come here to sleep.

 Unlike modern bunkers, World War II bomb shelters weren't subterranean, just covered in dirt. Nukes weren't heard of yet, and the idea was just to not be seen by the bombers, hence why they had blackouts in all the towns and cities. Both the shelters we found can't have been the only ones, since there's no way these two could hold everyone who would have worked here. They have identical layouts, with a main door at one end and a shaft at the other that would have provided a means of climbing out. One of these had a chair in. Both were cool to photograph.

By far the creepiest part of Tilstock is a pitch black labyrinth which the map labels as the Operations Block. Now it's derelict, and slowly falling apart, with certain parts of it flooding and leaking. I decided to take as few flash photographs as possible, allowing the torches to illuminate everything so that the photographs actually capture just how eerie this labyrinth really is. I feel some of the flash photographs rob it of this quality, although I did use it for some pictures. Part of me was expecting to find the beds of homeless people, as we'd found previously, but there was nobody here. Even the graffiti was more scarce than the other ruins, although thats not to say that there wasn't some gems. Very few people explore this place, it seems.

 I used the camera flash for the above shot. Outside the building a tree was growing out of the wall, and in this room one can see the roots spreading down across the brickwork. Click the picture to see it big.

 One of the coolest remaining features was the telephone exchange.

As you can see, the ceiling vents are gradually collapsing, and many are already lying around the ruins. 

This large room contained a wall hatch at the end, making me think it was some kind of food area. I don't know what the things hanging from the ceiling are though. 

Curiously, this room was the one that had the most graffiti. 

But by far the coolest aspect was this satanic teddy bear that had been nailed up high on the wall. 

The toilet block had been mostly stripped. According to myths, the toilet block is the most haunted part, for some reason. I guess when the people who used to work here died and pondered their next step, coming back to haunt the toilet of their former workplace seemed like a fantastic option.

Keep in mind, this place probably wasn't actually attacked during the war, and the people who were stationed here likely did not die here. But then whether this place is haunted all depends on what you think ghosts are. Is it really logical to leap to the conclusion of spirits of the dead when all one ever really experiences is a spooky atmosphere, vague apparitions or strange noise? It's the mediums who say that these things are the spirits of the dead, due to the ghosts telling them in a voice that conveniently only they can hear. But they're professionals, and they get paid lots of money to do what they do, so they must be legit, right?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to the idea of ghosts. In fact I've had more than my fair share of events that I cannot explain. But for me there simply isn't a link behind what is typically percieved and what we're led to believe these things are by alleged professionals. I mean, even if an apparition resembles someone who has died, there are countless reports of them resembling people who are still alive. A person can't just ignore one chunk of detail just because it clashes with the outcome that they want. That's illogical. I think there's something outside the sphere of our conventional perceptions, but I'm not convinced it's the spirits of the dead.

 Still in better condition than some of the toilets I've seen in pubs and clubs...

One of the pitch black toilets was flooded, and I discovered that shining my torch on it caused the water to reflect on the wall, and I spent an embarassing amount of time entertaining myself with this, creating ripples across the room.

As a side effect of exploring in the middle of winter, it was dark outside by the time we left this building, and since the rain was coming down heavily Tree Surgeon got in touch with his partner for a ride home. Of course, it would take a while before she got there so there was still some exploring to do!

The next building we checked out had an overabundance of graffiti, and as we examined it we realised there was a story here.

The Higher Heath Crew is written on the wall there, in pencil for some reason. And right next to it, also in pencil, was "Pink Panther." I guess this is the tag of someone who is part of the Higher Heath Crew.

A little further along as this drawing of a guy, also in pencil. Next to it was a story. 

 The story, allegedly written  by a girl, claims that she was raped by a guy called Barry. The picture of the guy is actually a surprisingly detailed picture of Barry, and upon further inspection, it was surrounded with insults pointing at him.

 What does Sunboy even mean?

 Among the insults, someone had misspelled Queer and been corrected. Sorry guys, it's not the ghosts who can't spell, just the Higher Heath Crew!

And if that wasn't anticlimatic enough for you, the overall opinion of Barry is that he's actually none of the things this wall says he is, just white. Lovely. Barry's getting off light there. No pun intended.

The next building, still part of the Operations block, had a room with barred windows, which made me wonder if it was for detaining people. It was the only room with barred windows. The overgrowth of nature claiming back this space really made it eerie.

And then Tree Surgeons partner showed up, the rain was coming down heavily and we were glad to be out of the woods. Although we explored a few more places away from Tilstock before we went home, but thats another story.

If you have any stories or information about this place or any other featured on this blog, please feel free to get in touch and if you want, follow me on Twitter and Instagram. And if you want my eternal love, click the donate button at the top corner, and put some pennies to my adventure fund. All donations will go to equipment that I can use to make this blog better.

And just to give a little back to the world, and balance the universe after all the media attention I've had, I want to draw your attention to a few other creative people. One of my favourite bloggers is Chelsea The Adventurer. She writes about her outdoors adventures and a lot of cool things, while also letting me tag along sometimes in low-budget Power Ranger attire. She's supported this blog a lot so click her link and check her blog out. Another one of the blogs I regularly check out is by Violet Fenn. It's called Sex Death Rock n Roll, and since I can't put it more plainly than she puts it herself, I'll just quote her own description of her blog content- "Sex toy reviews and other things that people apparently don't like being immiediately faced with when opening a web page." I love her style of writing. Go check her out.
A friend of mine who joined me on an adventure back in 2012 has recently started a Facebook page called Hidden Oswestry which looks at various historical and obscure secrets of Oswestry, where I used to live. I've actually consulted this guy a lot during research of some of the blog posts here, such as Brogyntyn Hall, which remains one of my most popular posts because it's so detailed. The guy knows his stuff, and since his page is so similar in theme to mine, it would be unfair not to give him some exposure.
And as a fourth one, I want to draw some attention to my friend Mina's Cosplay page. I've worked with Mina on creative projects in the past. She's a great actress, her cosplays are really good, and she deserves more attention. With the right boost she could really take off. Sure, she's not got the success of some of the others I've listed but we all start somewhere and I think the best thing I can do now that I'm getting noticed is to help others ascend too. But that's all I'm listing today, otherwise this blog will become more praise of other people than my own content, but I'll list more next time. In the mean time, please check these guys out and wait for my next piece.

Thanks for reading! Stay awesome!