Leafield Technical Centre
The site was built in 1912 as a radio transmission station. Later in 1986 it was decommissioned, and redeveloped into a training college, only to be closed again in 1993. The site was then leased to Tom
Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) as a motorsport development center. In 2002 the team had a bad season and the site changed hands to the Super Aguri F1 Team from 2006 to 2008. From 2003 Motorsport powertrain specialist Menard Competition Technologies Ltd Were on site. This company had financial difficulty and finally dissolved on the 13th of May 2014. Since early 2015 the site has been abandoned, and was recently put up for sale. Plans were submitted for demolishment and the construction for a number of flats, but this was reportedly rejected by the council in 2016 as they would prefer the site become an employment base once more as the building had created 230 positions.
This massive 150,000 square feet expanse was our first industrial explore. I wish I had taken more photographs, but we did encounter security on this visit. And after a narrow escape I was very much focused on getting us both offsite unseen. Getting on site was simple, and we were lost for hours wandering around the main building and it's many rooms. I definitely need a torch as I was following UrbexGirl through some very dark and spooky corridors by her light. Many of the rooms have been stripped empty, but there were some interesting rooms. Such as the retailer room, where they would photograph new car models, and an endless amount of server rooms and paperwork scattered around site. I even managed to find a floppy disk! By the time we had explored this building and moved onto the next, hours had passed and when entering another building I spotted security doing his rounds. We quickly explored, and left, encountering and maneuvering around more security on our way out.
Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) as a motorsport development center. In 2002 the team had a bad season and the site changed hands to the Super Aguri F1 Team from 2006 to 2008. From 2003 Motorsport powertrain specialist Menard Competition Technologies Ltd Were on site. This company had financial difficulty and finally dissolved on the 13th of May 2014. Since early 2015 the site has been abandoned, and was recently put up for sale. Plans were submitted for demolishment and the construction for a number of flats, but this was reportedly rejected by the council in 2016 as they would prefer the site become an employment base once more as the building had created 230 positions.
This massive 150,000 square feet expanse was our first industrial explore. I wish I had taken more photographs, but we did encounter security on this visit. And after a narrow escape I was very much focused on getting us both offsite unseen. Getting on site was simple, and we were lost for hours wandering around the main building and it's many rooms. I definitely need a torch as I was following UrbexGirl through some very dark and spooky corridors by her light. Many of the rooms have been stripped empty, but there were some interesting rooms. Such as the retailer room, where they would photograph new car models, and an endless amount of server rooms and paperwork scattered around site. I even managed to find a floppy disk! By the time we had explored this building and moved onto the next, hours had passed and when entering another building I spotted security doing his rounds. We quickly explored, and left, encountering and maneuvering around more security on our way out.
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