NGTE Pyestock, Farnborough - June/July/August 2012

For over fifty years, Pyestock was host to the development and testing of gas turbine engines. From the 1950s through to the 1970s, it was the largest facility of its type in Europe (if not the world), and the design, experimentation and testing at Pyestock helped to usher in the jet age. From running up Concorde's Olympus jet engines in a simulated supersonic conditions through to the endurance checking of every gas turbine installed in the ships of the Royal Navy, Pyestock's credentials were extremely impressive. As gas turbine research matured and computer simulations took over, Pyestock was gradually run down and now stands unused. The structures on the site are considered to be of national, if not international, importance. But due to their extremely specialised nature, no alternative uses have been put forward, and the whole site is destined to be demolished and replaced by a supermarket distribution centre.

This is a summary of 3 separate visits over the summer:

  • The first on a red hot day in June with JasperB and Skelderz where we spent about 3 hours looking for a way in, gave up and then found a way in. We visited the Power Station on this visit prior to getting busted by security and making a run for the fence.
  • The second was a miserable day in July with JasperB and Phantom Bish, it didn't take us long to get into the site and we visited the Main Stores and Main Workshop, then again we got busted by security and were escorted out of the front gate.
  • The third visit was in August with JasperB, LeedsExplorer and GAJ. Due to me and JasperB turning up 7 hours late we missed the other guys who had been there most of the day. We visited the Air House, Cell 4 and Cell 3 before setting up camp for the night on the roof of the Power Station, where I preceded to make a hash of cooking us some soup. Nevertheless, was a truly memorable night and something I'd like to do again one day.

Thanks to everyone who visited with us, some really great days!

Power Station

As was common at Pyestock, the architecture was very utilitarian. Our first view of the power station. Inside the power station, turbine straight in front. One of the large boilers and steam pipes. The turbines casing has been partially removed. The power station gantry crane, we came to see a good few of these on this site. Valves galore. Another angle. More valves. Telephone. A control panel. Inside the control room, always a pleasure to see these old control rooms. Key board. Log books. More...

Air House

The classic shot that everyone has. I was really happy to finally see it. Another angle, you can make out the names of some of the visitors to Pyestock on the casings. The Air House control room.

Cell 4

As seen in the film Sahara. Exhausts from the test cell. Inside the cell, again a classic shot. Looking inwards.

Miscellaneous Photos

Looking over at the Battle Test House from the Power Station roof. Inside the No. 1 Main Workshop. Signs like these featured heavily for understandable reasons. Apparently part of the site was used as a police firing range. A mock up Farnborough F1 that was bizarrely stored in the Main Stores as result of an arrangement between QinetiQ and FAST. The blue pipes everybody loves. More pipes.

and finally one from our camp site of JasperB and LeedsExplorer

Our camp site for the night.