A rare opportunity, free entry to a dangerous post industrial landscape that has been left by the demolition of the magnesite works in Steetley. Approaching the works from the beach the long pier is seen from far away, and close by are other large scale weather battered groins, connected together with oversized rusty bolts. This is chemical sea-side, this ex-industrialised landscape left to be reclaimed as an adventure playground. Nearly every step is with caution, underground rooms and tanks are everywhere and piles of aggregate feel ready to landslide underfoot (my footwear choice of flip-flops not recommended here). Cantilever stairs branch out from below ground reinforced concrete walls and lead to nowhere like an M.C. Escher painting.
Everything is covered in a fine white dust, the magnesite and wrecking ball have bleached the spectrum. In the distance three guys, one older two in there late teens shift bits of metal to uncover treasures under the direction of the other, loading selected bits of aggregate in to a pre-plastic-lined boot.
The tower still stands, inside looking up the courses of concrete rings form concentric patterns, but this chimney did not stop working when the works was shut down. Graffiti and burnt remnants are giving away signs of this a den.
The strangest things to find are pens, shoes a hole punch around the place, the ordinariness of human inhabitation.
The vats themselves are massive, and scary. Local kids are known to go swimming in them sometimes, the water looks azure blue in the more shallow vats, an unintended artificial chemical enhancement. The central churning sheds are toppled with the weight of the rust, process after process. I spend a few minutes of happy abandon lobbing bits of stone, wood and old cassette tapes into the water
(see also David Barrie on Steetley)