I've done an hour long exploration and history video walking around the gardens at Towers (including the lodge entrances etc). It could have easily been longer, believe me! Only just made it public this morning. Have a look if you fancy a gentle tour
From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uguYUbvWWjU
Cheers pal, very much appreciated
I wonder if this video can beat the heroic feat of my video on 'The Orangery' getting 451 views since last March? Only time will tell. Video below if you want to hear me droning on
Yes. This is probably for the best
Does anyone fancy wasting 47 minutes of their life? I very recently spent a cold morning/afternoon exploring the remnants of the canal that ran through Alton (part of the Uttoxeter Canal). Anyone familiar with the village and its history may be aware of the railway and the River Churnet, but what about the canal? What about its relevance to the Alton Towers estate between 1810 & 1849 given its close proximity? If nothing else, there is a good walk to be had and Crumpwood Weir is a lovely sight. One thing is guaranteed. This will not be going viral
From: https://youtu.be/s0z83nGsWHE
This is my footage from inside the ruins last Saturday, mostly the rarely seen West Wing. This was before me and the other random guests were kicked out because the staff had accidentally not put the barriers across to stop entry. Lucky for me though, as I'd been dying to go into that part of the house for a long time. Shame about all of the Scarefest stuff and other bits being stored in there. Would still love a better look around that area with more time to explore, but this was a lucky bonus I suppose anyway, so I'll take it
From: https://youtu.be/-sIfXVQqq88
It would have been amazing if you would have got some pictures at the time! The toy soldiers sound like something out of Toyland Tours or something similar. It's amazing how people accidentally end up in there when I've been checking to see if there is honest access into there for years but it's always seemed to be boarded up. Luck of the draw and employees unknowingly leaving doors open most probably
Sadly no photos, it was quite a long time ago now so pre-dated smartphones!It would have been amazing if you would have got some pictures at the time! The toy soldiers sound like something out of Toyland Tours or something similar. It's amazing how people accidentally end up in there when I've been checking to see if there is honest access into there for years but it's always seemed to be boarded up. Luck of the draw and employees unknowingly leaving doors open most probably
This is my footage from inside the ruins last Saturday, mostly the rarely seen West Wing. This was before me and the other random guests were kicked out because the staff had accidentally not put the barriers across to stop entry. Lucky for me though, as I'd been dying to go into that part of the house for a long time. Shame about all of the Scarefest stuff and other bits being stored in there. Would still love a better look around that area with more time to explore, but this was a lucky bonus I suppose anyway, so I'll take it
From: https://youtu.be/-sIfXVQqq88
It will likely have been one of the models from the front of Childrens World - the original version of the indoor playground that was previously where Gangsta Granny is now. There were a series of larger than life 'toy' models along the balcony on the front of the building.Sadly no photos, it was quite a long time ago now so pre-dated smartphones!
Toyland Tours was still open and they weren't of the same style so definitely didn't belong to that. The memory is engrained in my mind, spent a long time exploring in there as it was very exciting for a young geek to stumble across such stuff. Spent many a trip hoping to go back in
It will likely have been one of the models from the front of Childrens World - the original version of the indoor playground that was previously where Gangsta Granny is now. There were a series of larger than life 'toy' models along the balcony on the front of the building.
You can see the soldier through the tree at the back of this pic:
Some, if not all of the models were later put into storage in the Towers when the playground was switched to Barney's Playground, and were later resued as part of the theming for Scarefest's Carnival of Screams.
You can see the soldier again to the left here by the Blackhole tent in 2011:
Thanks again! Yeah, the West Wing was more or less added to house the State Rooms where any important visitors would be housed, and these rooms would be where they would stay. There are bigger stately homes, of course, but it's not the smallest either. The trouble is, we never get to see it as a whole as it's never all open to the public. Traditionally in recent-ish years it's mainly been the central block that's been open to visitors (inluding the Long Gallery, Banqueting Hall etc) and then of course the Grand Entrance, Picture Gallery and Armoury are taken up by Hex now. Then the other side of that you do actually have the buildings skirting the driving school (which I believe clergy used to stay in back in the 16th Earls days and are now used as offices). Then there's the Eastern range where the family actually used to spend most of their time as the rooms were a more 'liveable' size, and this is the area most ruined now (around the round-tower and East Entrance, if you're aware of those). Then comes the West Wing which we see here. If every area was open you could literally spend all day looking around but in recent years you're lucky if one bit of one section is accidentally open for an afternoon. And don't forget the basement level as well where the kitchens and stores etc used to be, or the servants accommodation tacked on to the side of the chapel. As a whole it is quite a big house when it's all combined, and indeed a lot of it would have been built to impress visitors first and foremost. The State Rooms in the West Wing appear to be amongst the largest of the bedrooms, and the shame is that I don't think they were really ever used for their intended purpose much, if at all, as not long after completion everyone started dying and the legal battles started and everyone didn't live happily ever after.
