SECRET Coal Slide Found in Our 150 Year Old School

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]So, I'm going to start taming this jungle which has cropped up here. I'm on the east side of the building right now.

[00:00:06]And yeah, it's the first time we've really been to this area and I just want to get it kind of clean back to a nice level.

[00:00:15]But I'm just going to start by sorting and organizing this area and moving a load of stone and just getting it back to a place where we can actually see what's going on here.

[00:02:04]That's the first bit of lead we pulled out.

[00:02:07]Probably should hold on to this instead of scrap. Actually, might get something for this.

[00:02:33]Oh Lord.

[00:02:39]>> Go on. Tell me what you found in your clearing. I've unearthed all of this now and cleared it all back. And we did know this is already here. So, it's not a crazy surprise for us. However, it's still pretty cool seeing it for the first time. Underneath me right now is where I don't know when they would have stopped using coal to heat this, but where they poured coal down to heat the school. So, it would have poured down there and there' have been a big boiler down there somewhere where they throw it in and heat the whole building. And this is the chute for it going down to the only subterranean level of the school.

[00:03:10]We need to get to watch down there.

[00:03:12]>> Yeah.

[00:03:12]>> So deep though. That's cool.

[00:03:15]>> The whole floor deep.

[00:03:17]>> Yeah.

[00:03:17]>> Isn't that cool?

[00:03:20]>> Hopefully no one falls down there.

[00:03:25]>> Very cool.

[00:03:56]It's heavy. It's cast iron. Whatever it is this morning, I want to do some more clearing. I did a load yesterday, but there's still a load of trees are kind of undermining the building and probably causing damage to it. Some more ivy and just some more kind of overgrown mess that's around the building. This is one of the last areas now that I've got to clear from around the building. So, it' be quite nice to get this all sorted and then we can kind of see what we're dealing with in the outside of the building and we can finally go in and start pulling stuff outside. And yeah, wood's going to go to the fire pit in the back. And then metal plastic is going to go in the skip run when we do that. And all the rubble is going to go out the front here for now cuz I'm not too sure what we want to do with it. And we're going to try and save as many slates as possible and capping bits and anything else that we can use in the future. So yeah, let's go and chop down this little tree here. It's actually a fairly decent sized tree. I think it's an ash, but I'm not too sure. I might be wrong on that. Let me know what tree you think this is.

[00:04:59]The leaves are about to come through.

[00:05:03]But it's kind of pretty. I would like to save it if I can. I'm going to dig it out and just see. But I imagine the roots go way too deep for it to be saved.

[00:06:40]Heat. Heat.

[00:07:51]I've got to say it feels quite surreal actually about to start clearing some of the building finally. We've been looking at this building for months and months now without being able to do anything, but we can finally step inside and actually start doing some stuff. So, it's pretty overwhelming. It's pretty daunting.

[00:08:10]There is just stuff absolutely everywhere, but I know we've got it. I know it's going to take time.

[00:08:19]Yeah, it's going to take a lot of time, but I'm going to start by just clearing some of the walkways just so we can get in and out of areas a little bit more safely and a bit more easily. This area doesn't have anything really above at the moment. There's some smaller hanging down bits, but the roof here is completely gone already. So, we kind of want a way that's a bit easier to get in the building and just a bit safer. So, I'm going to clear all of this rubble, get all the rest of the wood out. If there's anything that can be saved, I'll save it. I'm going to put it in a big pile behind me here. This is from a previous owner who did a little bit of clearing. Get it all out. Save bits that need saving. Do a pile of rubble, pile of wood, and yeah, just kind of get it back to a level where we can actually get in the building without falling over.

[00:09:05]Although before I actually get in the building, I want to save a few of these little bits. There's a few windows here, and we do want to try and copy some of these designs as best we can. So, I'm actually going to pull these out and hold on to them if I can.

[00:10:03]Just take a couple.

[00:11:05]Loads of these wires are really annoying me. So, I'm going to cut a load of them down and just get them out of my way for now. I know all the power's off in here.

[00:11:13]There's no cables that run here or anything like that. The This whole build is disconnected a very, very long time ago.

[00:11:44]I am trying to remove these slates as carefully as I can because yeah, I do want to save as many as I can, but a lot of them are just rumbling.

[00:11:53]So, yeah, it is what it is. But I've managed to save quite a few so far. And then once I've saved as many states here as I can and the other side, I'll take all this wood apart and get rid of it cuz it's rotten through all of it.

[00:13:49]We've got a little bit more to do in here. We still got to clear all this.

[00:13:52]And I'm going to get a bit of a pole and knock down this loose stuff here as well cuz it's just kind of it's a bit dangerous at the moment. There's some wood overhanging there and I just want to kind of knock it off. But I'm gonna get all this clear today. Find any more tars I can find in here. And then yeah, we'll have a a bit of an entrance way in here in and out the site that's going to be a bit safer than what it currently is. So yeah, better crack on.

[00:14:49]That is probably one of the better windows. We might actually be able to reuse this one completely.

[00:14:58]Oh, that'd be fun.

[00:15:02]Look at that.

[00:15:07]It's great still. It's not even really rotten. It's a bit damaged by the weather, but yeah. Brilliant.

[00:17:11]For anyone who watched our last episode, they'll remember two of the students saying about how they used to hang their coats on pegs. I was wondering if these were the ones that they came off. I'm fairly sure they were mounted on the back wall there somewhere. But yeah, it's kind of cool.

[00:17:54]God, I just keep on finding these old coat hooks. And I'm fairly sure in the middle here, they probably would have put the kids name who the backpack belonged to. I guess for people in the US, it's kind of like school lockers. in the UK. I remember having these at school or something similar. Have your name here. You'd hang your backpack or coat or whatever on there. It would be yours.

[00:18:19]It's pretty fun though. I've probably found like 30 of these now.

[00:19:36]Found a fake plastic 10p coin. It's obviously a toy at some point.

[00:19:55]I'm pretty happy with that. That is this room pretty much clear. I mean, there's some debris here and there. There still spilling out from here a little bit, but that's what I want to tackle next. This in here I need to kind of pull down. And there's not too much that's going to come down if I pull this down. But to be able to clear these bricks and all the rubble down here, I want to be able to take down most of these bits of wood. Um, and they're all pretty most of them are pretty loose. Um, and looks like most of them being just held up by the old wire that's in the conduits here. So, I'm going to get as much down as I can and then I'm going to cut the rest of this conduit out and pull it out.

[00:21:52]That was a lead bucket holding in a load of slate. I'm glad I got that down.

[00:21:58]It's definitely made a bit safer in this area now. There's nothing immediate now that looks like it's going to actually fall on me. So, it's great.

[00:22:06]>> All righty. Zach has spent the morning clearing most of this space here. And actually, there's a really beautiful floor. It's kind of blackened terracotta tile, which is lovely. I am now just going to This is a bit precarious, this random copper pipe. But I am out here and my job now is to take all this stuff here to the classroom so we can clean it up and preserve it. These are all the I think Zach showed these, but these are all the old coat hooks with the spaces for the name tags. And I think that's awesome. We're definitely going to put that back probably in the mud room, which is actually going to be just this space here.

[00:22:54]But yeah, I really like this space. This is going to be our kind of entrance hall. So, yeah, it's not looking too bad. Few iffy bits. Uh things like, you know, this beam is non-existent up here. It continues there. Goes along.

[00:23:12]Obviously, that will be needing to be replaced. You can kind of see. Oh, Zach's had his way with the door.

[00:23:19]I think that was shut before. Now it's off its hinges. Oh, the hinges are just rotted off. That's quite funny. But it's to be fair.

[00:23:32]Sounds pretty good. You can see the wood through it. Doesn't look too bad this door. Actually, it' be nice to get that into the classroom, too, to to save.

[00:23:40]This is funny. Oh, I guess um there is a strange space in here.

[00:23:49]Oh, it looks like it was Is that There's also a really strange ball in there. I want to get it out. But how? That's not going to fall on me, is it?

[00:24:06]Should I crawl in? What's the verdict?

[00:24:09]What's the verdict, gang? Should I crawl into that very ominous looking hole?

[00:24:14]Let's do it.

[00:24:20]It's really cold in there.

[00:24:34]What the heck? What is that?

[00:24:40]Oh, that's kind of creepy. It's an old ball.

[00:24:44]Weird.

[00:24:46]That would creep some people out just as well. I'm not claustrophobic.

[00:24:51]Anyone for a game of cat? Also, if anyone has any recommendations for good work gloves, these are crap.

[00:24:58]They're just cheap and crap. Hyper tough, my ass. Um, yeah, send them down below cuz we need to buy some proper serious some proper serious gloves.

[00:25:09]Right, let's get clearing. Shall we take You're slacking on the job, mate. I'm not paying you for nothing.

[00:25:35]Oh golly, that's heavy.

[00:25:52]Got it.

[00:25:57]I did it.

[00:26:10]Renovation by day, party by night.

[00:27:03]Okay.

[00:27:26]Wow.

[00:29:17]I kind of want to get rid of little bits like this because if someone's standing under it and that comes down, it's going to it's going to hurt a little bit.

[00:29:28]>> Good aim.

[00:30:15]Right, I've hit my head in this a few too many times now. So, I'm actually going to cut these wires that holding this section up and just move out of the way cuz this is really annoying me.

[00:30:50]At least I won't keep hitting my head in this conduit.

[00:31:22]That's All It's so spongy, isn't it?

[00:32:13]>> Yeah, >> that's fun. Oh, yeah. Look up.

[00:32:31]>> Oh, yeah. Yeah, cuz he's very pink and spotty leggings.

[00:32:47]>> There's loads in here actually over there as well.

[00:32:49]>> Yeah.