Shadow Dragon

Aldermaston Manor

May 2018 | England | Extant

Note – this site is owned by the Ministry of Defence as of 2026. Trespass on this site is a CRIMINAL OFFENCE, so for your own good DO NOT GO HERE otherwise you will be trespassing on MOD property and a nuclear licensed site.

***

Aldermaston Manor is a 19th century mansion built in the Neo-Elizabethan style. It replaces an earlier predecessor that was partially (not completely) destroyed by fire a couple of years before the current one was built. The new mansion incorporates various architectural features from the original house such as the magnificent carved staircase, the decorative brick chimney stacks, some fireplaces, the stained glass and the wooden panelling.

THE EXPLORE: May 2018 – It actually took me a good 18 months to actually find a way into this place as it is locked down pretty damn tightly but I finally managed to find a way in. Combined with motion sensor CCTV cameras both on the inside and outside, this makes moving around inside and outside this place undetected bloody mission impossible. The explore was brilliant. Loved every minute of it. I had to sneak in via a hole in the perimeter wall and keep to the bushes to avoid the guard patrols that were every ten minutes. Security is stationed in a small cabin near the main entrance to the site. The access to the mansion was… hair-raising… I won’t detail it as it has now been sealed off but it was not pleasant. Once inside, I was met with a motion sensor camera pointing down the corridor. I had to very careful edge my way underneath it to access the rest of the mansion. There were 37 motion sensor cameras inside that required very careful navigating around to avoid. At the very end of my visit I accidentally set one off and that caused a small security panel to begin bleeping loudly. I was on the top floor of the mansion and could just about hear this… Literally two minutes later a car came barreling up to the front of the house and an irate guard came running out. Time to go!! I legged it down the servants quarters stairs and out a rear exit of the place. Luckily I had plenty of photos to show!

July 2021 – I returned here once again to photograph the site with my DSLR, having previously only taken photos with my bridge camera. I managed to find a way in pretty quickly and began my explore. In the years since my last exploration, I was saddened to see the beginnings of vandalism – spray paint throughout various areas of the site on photogenic things. I happen to know who did this – it’s a well known “urbexer” who takes photos for themselves and then ‘tags’ the site so that they and only they have the best photos of the site. Frankly revolting behaviour. If you are reading this, shame on you. There is a lot of water damage to the building now as well. First floor ceilings are beginning to collapse, and other areas have collapsed plaster. It’s a damn shame to see such a lovely building go to rot.

***