Warped and Pieced - Return to Huncoat (Part 3)

Back in July 2009 I wrote a piece about the graff co-existing with the rubble of the old Huncoat Power Station in Lancashire. Join me for the final return visit and a visual ride into them thar hills...


All photos by shellshock


Quick link to the July 2009 blog……

Quick link to Part 1 of this blog....

Quick link to Part 2 of this blog....


The disused power station at Huncoat (between Accrington and Burnley) is easily the best hidden graff den I’ve ever been to. Rubble and crud are everywhere, right next to stunning pieces from the Trans Pennine Nomads (TPN) crew (and a few others). A visual overload; you don’t know where to look (actually I do know where to look….. look up for graffiti… and look down for that pit full of glass and old shoes that you are about to fall into you spanner….).


In February I finally summoned up some enthusiasm to get out of Manchester and bob back up to Huncoat (see part 2 of this blog). Due to the snow and my own internal GPS system going strangely loco [Pryme later described it as a “schoolboy error” - lol], I didn’t manage to get down to the other spot, so I went back a week later after arranging to hook up with the fabulous Mr Pryme himself.

Pryme had been painting with TeaOne from Preston (check out TeaOne on flickr) the day before, and he wanted to finish off his own piece, so we yakked whilst he tried to perfect his side of the wall.

TeaOne's piece.....





Pryme in action.....







I probably put Pryme off, because he ended up not liking it and going over it a few days later with a chrome and black number (watch out for a 'Chrome & Black' blog coming soon-ish...)

We then went off to the other spot where back in brassic January Pryme had been doing a lot of work with Burnley writer, Slack - a name I previously didn‘t know. Yes, these pieces (and they genuinely can be called masterpeices!) were all being done outside in the coldest winter for years, when many writers are still hibernating! :-)

Check out Slack on flickr

Check out Pryme on flickr



The whole wall looks great, including this first piece, the most ‘traditional’ of the three, and one that looks extra sweet when cropped down to just the wall itself.



Everyone loves a good chrome and black don’t they (it’s like a friend who makes you smile, or a musician that makes you gasp; it‘s the comfort blanket of graff…) and this is one of the best I’ve seen, with a really effective idea of having two cut-outs of how a colour piece would look.





And last but definitely not least, this peel-back style had writers everywhere wondering why they hadn’t thought of that before.... Genius!!

Warped and Pieced - Return to Huncoat (Part 2)

Back in July 2009 I wrote a piece about the graff co-existing with the rubble of the old Huncoat Power Station in Lancashire. Join me for a couple of return visits and a visual ride into them thar hills....

All photos by shellshock


Quick Link to the July 2009 blog - if you are interested.....


Quick Link to Part 1 of this blog....


The disused power station at Huncoat (between Accrington and Burnley) is easily the best hidden graff den I’ve ever been to. Rubble and shit are everywhere, right next to stunning pieces from the Trans Pennine Nomads (TPN) crew (and a few others). A visual overload; you don’t know where to look (actually I do know where to look….. look up for graffiti… and look down for that pit full of glass and old shoes that you are about to fall in you spanner….).


A week ago I finally summoned up some enthusiasm to get out of Manchester and bob back up to Huncoat. I knew there was some new stuff there; although I hadn’t really done my research on what exactly was there, and if anything new was down at the other spot.

We only had a dusting of white stuff in Manc so I hadn’t expected to be greeted at Huncoat with thick fog and snow. I’d never seen this empty shell like a magical realist playground before.



I knew that Pryme and Riot 68 had done a piece upstairs so I headed there, not to be disappointed by a typical Pryme piece (is it just my eyes getting adjusted but are his letters getting slightly easier to read?), and Riot’s futuristic slabs of metal (I’m not into sci-fi at all, but I could imagine this forming part of a space ship, or a missile shield…), plus umbilical cord style swirls connecting into and out of both pieces.





What I didn’t realise was that Pryme had been doing a lot of work with Burnley writer, Slack - a name I previously didn‘t know. They have reclaimed the main wall, with a more bird / aeroplane like Pryme piece, and Slack’s classy wild style.

Slack on flickr

Pryme on flickr





It’s always a hard wall to photograph (especially for someone as cack as me), coz of the gaping entrance next to it always streaming in with light, so on this shot I thought I'd embrace the light rather than try to deny it.....





And on a less used side wall, they’d done another collab. Slack uses big bold day-glo colours, whereas Pryme goes for drips and perfect shadows. All on a slightly psychedelic background which makes we wonder what they might have been smoking….







And I’m saving the best ‘til last. Part 3 will be coming soon and will include one of the best chrome and black’s you’ve ever seen, and a peel-back style that had writers everywhere wondering why they hadn’t thought of that before…...

Warped and Pieced - Return to Huncoat (Part 1)

Back in July 2009 I wrote a piece about the graff co-existing with the rubble of the old Huncoat Power Station in Lancashire.

Join me for a couple of return visits and a visual ride into them thar hills….


All photos by shellshock

Quick Link to the July 2009 blog - if you are interested.....


The disused power station at Huncoat (between Accrington and Burnley) is easily the best hidden graff den I’ve ever been to. Rubble and shit are everywhere, right next to stunning pieces from the Trans Pennine Nomads (TPN) crew (and a few others). A visual overload; you don’t know where to look (actually I do know where to look….. look up for graffiti… and look down for that pit full of glass and old shoes that you are about to fall in you spanner….).


On bobbing up there for a return visit in November 2009 I was a bit gutted to see three of the best pieces from July had been partly gone over by, frankly, some really amateurish bits (I can’t call them pieces….). Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. I can’t complain. It’s graff. It’s not supposed to last for ever. There are no ’rules’…..

But surely, if you are gonna try in an abandoned power station, where there are walls a plenty, you better bring your end game if you are going to deliberately go over some of the best pieces in the North-West, and not bring the friggin toy zone set-up that you see in these photos….








Ok, rant over. I’ll get off the soap box now (although it’s actually quite handy to take photos from…)

Forgot to include this one when I did the last blog. I presume it’s by Ziel, who’s done quite a lot of stuff in nearby Rochdale.




As I take photos, who do I bump into? Only Mr Pryme himself, up here to take a few photos himself. And we yak for many hours. I think his footballing chances at Turf Moor might be behind him, but if there are two things that Pryme could represent England at, it’s, 1) writing, and 2) talking :-)

And usually it’s talking about ‘the Turf‘! We agree on most things, including the revelation (cough! hardly…) that neither of us gets Nick Walker….. (actually, I think you’ll find no-one in the game really likes it…)

Anyway, he shows me a quickie he did with a friend, Petra, upstairs.






I’d gone up to Huncoat partly coz I saw some internet photos of a side wall I hadn’t noticed before, so we wheeled round to see that. The surface wasn’t the greatest to work with but the low wall suits Pryme and Crie’s style well, with the first two pieces (1 each) cut in half by the top of the wall. I think it might be my Asperger’s gene, but I could lap this stuff up all day. I just find Crie’s fantastical meanderings mesmerising, and I don’t get bored of Pryme’s 3D pieces [technical drawing was my favourite subject at school, and I love his perspectives and those crisp angles and lines]

The longer and artier shots first…… (I like the tyre with intricate silver tags on it….)





Now the 4 pieces, one by one (Pryme, Crie, Pryme, Crie…)










Finally, a quick trip down to the other local spot, where there was one new piece since my last trip; a rampant little collab between Pryme and Era. Again, I could take this all day. Pryme’s angles, and Era’s swirling curves, look so damn sexy together, and the colours look great on the deep black behind.



And a photo of an old wall, coz I liked the comfy looking sofa that had been dumped in front of it. It should be turned around, so you can sit and have a cigar and a glass of Benedictine whilst marvelling at the massive TPN collab, in sci-fi style (Pryme / Era / Sune / Crie). Mmmmm, what a life that would be!

Dead, Abandoned and Pieced

The Trans Pennine Nomads (TPN) could rightly be considered to be the best writers crew in England, and a lot of their pieces co-exist with the rubble of the old Huncoat Power Station in Lancashire. Join me for a visual ride into them thar hills….



All photos by shellshock


The disused power station at Huncoat (between Accrington and Burnley) is easily the best hidden graff den I’ve ever been to. Rubble and shit are everywhere, right next to stunning pieces from the TPN crew (and a few others). A visual overload, you don’t know where to look (actually I do know where to look….. look up for graffiti… and look down for that pit full of glass and old shoes that you are about to fall in….). Local taggers, toys and throwuppers also use the place, and being quiet and off the beaten track it’s a great place to practise and perfect. Take your time, have a can, and use your cans……

It’s not as difficult to find as you might think, and there is even an old sign to welcome you :-)



Crie and Pryme (local lad and founder of the TPN) are my two fave writers and as you duck down into the building one of their (relatively rough) joint pieces greets you. But there is far far more than that to come….



Despite all the advantages of being next to a colliery and railway line, the power station actually had a fairly short life, only working from 1956 to 1984. Most of it was demolished by 1990, apart from this one building. At some point it is due to be turned into a waste treatment plant.

The end wall of the central area is obviously an attention grabber, including for photography angles, as the suited characters hold the pieces out as canvases.





Small rooms abound everywhere, all with rubble and paint. It’s so peaceful, yet so loud, as glass crunches under your unsteady feet. Photography angles are everywhere, and old bits of the power station workings still live on (plus the toilets - I had a waz there rather than onto the rubble - it just felt right…)





A whitewashed separate room actually has the top pieces though. A Crie & Pryme collab on one wall, and Pryme’s collab with Riot 68 on the other. These are skills you don’t learn overnight; many of the best writers are approaching middle age now, and / or have come back into the game after time away in the 90’s.





There are also bits upstairs, and great views out over the Lancashire hills. It’s a bit weird actually, being in this bombed out wreck, yet such natural beauty being what seems like only an arms length away.



This Pryme (left) and Crie (right) collab is the main piece upstairs. [I’m sure you can easily now recognise who does which bit! They are so different yet it works together…]





But remember.....shuuuush... Don’t tell the toyz where the best spots are :-)



More photos on flickr