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    Arrow Whittingham Hospital Water Tower 01/10/06

    Well first things first, this little exercise wasn't carried out with photography in mind, hence the naff quality of the few photos I took on my camera phone.

    As I've not done any real Urbex since I got my camera, I thought I'd offer this piece in the meantime. This is just a brief account of how myself and a friend found ourselves absailing off the top of the water tower at Whittingham Hospital. As I know most of your are aware of this place, there's no need for a description or anything, so lets get to the point I guess.

    One night in the Local I overheard a fellow drinker talking about how they had been exploring the Whittingham grounds that day and had managed to get into the water tower & that you could even get onto the roof. This immediately sparked my interest (I'm a keen climber you see) and I knew right there that I had to absail from it if possible. I gave my friend a call (another nutcase) and he was well up for the challenge. So the very next day we grabbed our kit and headed off. If memory serves, it was around lunchtime, heading right up to the top.

    After a brief time spent admiring the views and generally crapping ourselves over the prospect of what we were about to do, we tied our rope around the 4 steel reinforced concrete beams that support the stairs, dropped the other end over the side, and put our harnesses on. Once fully roped up, my friend went first, sliding on his belly over the edge, making sure the rope was fully in his hand to control his descent. He slid ever further over until he could push himself away from the wall with his feet, and then he vanished from my view. Next was my turn, and I was papping my self!! It's so hard to slide over something like that, knowing there is no safety rope to save you, and no lip to steady your feet on the other side as you start to push yourself away.

    After a couple of goes each, we were thinking of packing up before we got caught, when we saw a couple walking their dog inside the security fencing, towards the tower. We decided we couldn't resist a bit of fun so my friend got ready on the absail to do a speed run down to the ground as they got near. He times it to perfection, nearly landing on them as the were looking at ways to get into the tower. When they got over their initial shock, they joined us at the top of the tower, where we did a few more absails to show them waht we were upto. A short while later we packed up the rope and harnesses into our bags and headed back.

    On our way to the point where we had gained entry to the grounds, we were caught by security. We managed to spin them a yarn about a lost dog which they seemed to believe & they escorted us all the way out of the grounds. Luckily we had stowed the rope in a bag instnead of what we usually do which is to coil it up and sling it over our shoulder. Not sure how we would have explained a 50m climbing rope away!!

    Anyway, thats enough of a ramble, here's a few pics I took with my camera phone.

    The view from the top


    My friend getting ready


    Starting the absail


    Me at the edge of the overhang


    And finally the view from the bottom
    Last edited by BB; 26-08-2011 at 05:25 PM.

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