Tales of the Urban Explorer: The Woodfield Centre

It’s a strange concept and it happens again and again.

You explore a building, not realising there's another one just a couple of hundred yards away until you're back again three years later. Having the information to hand is crucial unless you love wasting time.

In today's Urban Exploring world, it's a handful of 'chosen ones' on Facebook who get the cream. I am not in this exclusive club that visits one Time Capsule after another, and the likes of us peons have to scrape together on the scraps.

This brings me to 'The Woodfield Centre', a terrible condition, E-rated derpy shithole that I know you are all dying to read about. Until I took the time to dig into this one, it had a temporary label of, 'Derp near the Witches House'.

The Witches House, otherwise known as 'The Hollins' has since been demolished. My memory of it was just about avoiding a large pile of human shit around the back, and a condom box on the steps.

...'The Witch's House, now gone and flattened. There are..., were similarities in the design, plus added turds'...

It wasn't the best, was collapsing and demolition was probably the best thing that could have happened to it.

‘The Woodfield Centre’ was a War Hospital, and was later used by the NHS. That's about all I can find, and if it was a 'hospital' I can't imagine many of our boys with injuries being housed here unless you figure the outhouses were part of it.

We approached from the wrong angle. It's nothing new, but meant climbing a wall before disappearing into dense undergrowth as this looked like the shortest route.

Little did we know at the time a jaunt through the woods, past the former 'Witches House' would bring us right to it.

Noting the warning 'Danger Fragile Roof', I wondered what was going through the minds of who attached that. Were they expecting credible patients to veto the front door and climb on the roof to fix their broken legs?

Could this provide some form of psychical therapy, and a challenge not to fall through... but to balance on the edge?

While tempting to try and with that thought of 'improve your fitness' in my mind, the upper window was barred, the front door badly tinned, and there was a gaping hole in the lower window.

Pragmatism prevailed, and we jumped through.

Another burned-out hole, could we expect anything else given the exterior views? Some melting had tortured the bottom of that window.

It would make for uncomfortable sleeping, very hard and your feet would fall off the end unless you're a short-arsed dwarf.

There was no shortage of doors, you can sleep on several that are on offer. There are even holes on the ground floor to place your shoes before drifting off into slumber.

It's like they stick these signs on for the sake of irony. 2001, it gives me a little clue as to when it was torched by the fire starters but omits the NHS confirmation I was searching for.

Now those are quality stairs, and I’m not being sarcastic. For such a terrible quality derp, there’s no fear of injury going up there.

As well as being a 'No Smoking Area', it's now a no-go area unless you want a swift death. The cobwebs I was trying to highlight in the foreground looked a lot better than in this image.

This was spectacular but once again, came out quite crummy as an image. The lighting made it something to behold and at the time I figured I had at least one decent capture to take from this uninspiring mess.

A view recovering war heroes would have taken in while listening to the whistling bombs falling over nearby Manchester. That other section looks more like stables, than an area teeming with wanna-be Florence Nightgales'.

I did wave to @anidiotexplores through the floorboards, who was downstairs and looked up surprised. Unlike the solid stairs, up here was decidedly dicey.

As far as I dare go... and when you see what else there is, you will know why.

Is there a reason to continue? A bucket lid, the remains of a sleeping bag, the sleeper may still be over there... dead, but my nose told me otherwise.

Backtracking and having a good look at the very dodgy hole I had to semi-jump across I headed back down the stairs.

There's even a bannister to clutch if you feel a little unsafe.

Is it glue or frothing wallpaper, I can't be sure.

We departed and headed for the 'other buildings' which looked extremely devoid of anything photogenic.

Even the graffiti was shit, as well as very old.

Is it some type of ancient heating device that requires fossil fuel such as coal?

Next to 'The Woodfield Centre' is a new housing estate. It would not surprise me if this ex-hospital is the next to go.

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