If you've been reading this blog for a while then you'll know I've mooched around Poland and had the time of my life. But last blog was pretty heavy, and had me dive down the rabbit hole of Schindler's List history and trivia. It was fascinating but depressing, so I needed a break. Before I continue the Polish blogs and the heavy subject matter there, I wanted to first focus on something light hearted and fun.
A vehicle graveyard sure fits that description. I usually find them to be quite mediocre, mainly because they're almost always cars, and if I want to see cars, I can just go outdoors. There's seven parked on my street right now. But this vehicle graveyard had four vintage fire trucks, and that is pretty awesome.
Of all the vehicles I've found abandoned over the years, from cruise ships, tanks and UFOs, I've somehow never photographed fire trucks before.
Well technically they're "airport crash tenders" and apparently there are crucial differences. I don't know much about it, but I've heard that some people get quite aggy about this distinction.
And I can believe it. There probably are fire truck nerds out there. There are nerds about everything. I remember when I blogged about that tank, I had some guy get annoyed because it was actually an "armoured combat vehicle." That just sounds like "Tank with extra syllables" to me. I mean, if I had to describe a tank to someone that's probably what I'd say.
But apparently there is a difference and tank nerds get quite precious about it. And I get it. I get protective about the stuff I'm nerdy about too. If any fire truck nerds exist, I am sorry.
These are pretty cool though. It's not every day I come across something like these. Naturally I had to climb all over them.
On top of the crash tenders are these glorious super soakers. I assume they blasted foam rather than water.
I wonder if any of this is still functional.
At least one of the crash tenders is from Blackpool Airport. I tried to look up news reports on historic accidents there, in the hopes that maybe someone had snapped this fire truck back when it was in active service.
Someone certainly would have today, in the era where everyone has a camera on them ready to upload everything that happens onto social media. But these crash tenders were used between the 1970s and 1990s, so I had no luck there.
What is cool is that the entire front end of the Blackpool fire truck is completely encased in ivy. Nature has clawed its way into this specific corner and just engulfed anything that happened to be there.
With the trucks wide open, it would have been foolish to not take the opportunity to slip inside and have a look at the interiors.
One of the cool things about urbex is that we do get to see things that many people don't get to see. The only legitimate way anyone really gets to see inside a fire truck is to join the fire service. That's 0.05% of the British population, according to Google. Most of us will go our entire lives without ever seeing this. And it's pretty cool back here, with all these levers and gauges.
Beyond the fire trucks, there's a plethora of cars. I'm not too fussed about cars. I'm not a car nerd, and nothing bores me more than a "car graveyard" in the urbex world. But here they are. Someone will find these interesting.
I don't think anything here is from this century.
There are a few other buildings nearby. This office suggests some sort of commercial use for the area.
This is quite amusing. These scrabble pieces are exactly as I found them. I had no involvement in the layout, and I have no idea who EBR is. A wanker, apparently.
I'm just happy they've taken the time to write "You're" properly.
This is the most recent documentation that I found. It's dated 2001, which means we can estimate that this place has been unloved for about twenty-five years.
It would be wrong not to briefly mention the house on the site too, even though we decided to skip it.
There is a very large house with a lot of history to it. The owner has allegedly passed away, although apparently the house is still cared about, and in a constant state of accessibility flux. For every fresh board of wood, there seems to be an urbexer with a sledge hammer ready to take it out.
My own morals on urbex are quite clear- I leave things as I find them, and I only enter if there is a way in. But I feel morally dirty entering a residential location that is still cared about by the family of the former occupant. How would any of us feel of that was our family member whose former home was constantly being broken into and smeared online under the clickbaity title "Murder Mansion?"
So we didn't touch the house. A barn full of vehicles is one thing. A home is another.
Ordinarily I'd say that if you've seen one abandoned barn, you've seen them all. But this one is a step above the others. It has all of the old vintage milking jars. I've never found an abandoned barn that still has these intact.
This also appears to be a makeshift office, with loads of paperwork strewn over a desk.
All evidence here seems to suggest that the owner was involved in the film industry. I've seen urbex photos from inside the house that back this up. He seems to be friends with the guy who did the special effects on "Willow" in 1989. Some photos show that he had some quirky possessions that have caused
urbexers to call him eccentric, while more ignorant people call him a freak and a weirdo.
But then some of their photos show documentation that involves him selling or hiring his things to movie productions. One such example is a document from 1979 that shows that he had involvement in the 1980 movie "Silver Dream Racer" and the 1979 film "SOS Titanic." According to the paperwork, based on transactions with these two films, he made £10,931.
So really, it was his job to have quirky and weird stuff. Granted, a lot of urbexers don't know what a job is, but this is why the owner was able to live in such a large house. He shouldn't be insulted at all. He should be envied. He was living the dream.
And that's about it. Given that I love history, and given that I pride myself in how I go more in-depth than the average urbexer, sometimes I feel a smidge guilty for doing places like this, and I have to continuously remind myself that not everything needs to be a saga. Sometimes in urbex we just have to appreciate something for what it is. Fire trucks are cool, and I don't know if I'll ever come across any again. Gotta seize these opportunities when they show themselves.
If you know where this is, then you can probably guess what my next blog will be. Again, there's not a whole lot of history there but it's pretty cool. And it all makes a short break from the heavy subjects of my Polish blogs. I am, after all, only mostly human.
In the meantime, if you like my blogs and want regular updates then unfortunately the best way to stay updated is to follow my social media. I'm still on the hub of human misery that is Facebook, and I swear doing this blog is the only thing that keeps me sane on that cesspit. I'm also on Instagram too for some reason. But I want to encourage people to slowly migrate over to healthier options. I'm on Cara and Vero, which are smaller Instagram substitutes, and I'm on Bluesky which is what Twitter used to be. They've got smaller userbases than the mainstream sites, but they're less toxic and they actually show you who you want to follow, instead of whoever pays the overlords for exposure. Give me a follow there if you want.
Thanks for reading!
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