Les Oakes Reclamation

Have you ever been somewhere and you spend the whole time walking around with your mouth hanging open because you can't believe what you are seeing?

Well, Les Oakes Reclamation in Cheadle is one of those places. Been recommended by a friend (thank you Felix) ages ago as an explorer's and photographer's dream. Well I finally got there this week. And wow!

Where to start!. The place is huge. Loads of sheds like this one which you are free to wander around. At your own risk of course! 

As long as you are prepared to cope with dust, pigeon poo and the wandering rooster that lives on-site (I kid you not) you are going to come across some very unexpected things.

And yes, that does include a lifesize statue of Queen Victoria.

I must at this point let you know that I only had my phone and my little Sony camera with me, so please excuse the quality of the pics.

As you wander through this vast metropolis of junk, there's barely a soul around and it gives you the feeling of discovering some long forgotten explorer's hideaway.

This is probably my favourite find of the day. It was just beautiful but with all the dirt, dust and cobwebs it looked very forlorn. Sadly no one wants this type of thing in their front parlours anymore and so they are left to gradually fall into neglect.

So then onto the outside.

This is only a tiny part. There was some semblance of order to it I guess, in as much as rocks and concrete was in this area, bricks in another, wood somewhere else and terracotta hidden away in the depths of beyond! But if you love a clamber and don't mind getting decidedly grubby, you can have a lot of fun here.

Or at least until.....

Thought I had a stone in my shoe and when I took it off, saw that it was a rather large rusty nail on it's way to embedding itself in my foot. Having had a tetanus jab a few years back after a dog bite I was very relieved that I wasn't going to have to go through that hellish nightmare again.

With my shoes already soaked through and now holey I headed back to the car to change into my wellies which I really should have done in the first place.

The video shows the original reason I went to a reclamation yard. I had seen the fabulous Charlie Dimmock use old Victorian drains in the garden and I wanted to have a go. I wasn't hopeful of finding them, but there they were. Right at the back of some treacherous shrubbery challenging me to risk life and limb and do something creative with them.

Well I did, and this is the result...

It's not finished yet, but you get the general idea.

And this has now become a tunnel for the hedgehog that appears occasionally in the garden.

So a return visit is rescheduled and next time I will leave the shopping list at home, take my proper camera and just see what delights I can find.

Lessons Learned: If I am sensible enough to bring socks and wellies, try to be sensible enough to actually wear them!

Diet Diary: Move along, nothing to see here.