What’s out there
I’ve created this page to give you an idea of what exists out there to be found.
I’m breaking these down into categories and I’ll start large and work down
These are just a very small selection of the properties I know of. I’ll add more pictures over time, but the idea here is to give a sense of what is out there in each category
Mansions and estate buildings
It’s hard to judge the scale of this, but this is an intact Victorian mansion. It still has it’s contents, although whether these are original, or from the owners from the 1990’s I can’t tell. I do know it’s full, and the immediate grounds are littered with abandoned building materials. You can’t see from this picture, but there has been scaffolding erected around part of the house, and a section of the roof appears to have been removed. According to LR, the house has 3 owners who bought it in the 1990’s. It looks like they attempted some restoration, but clearly bit off way more than they could chew and appear to have just walked away.. The property itself only includes the house, drive, and above the house is an intact but hard to get into walled garden. Probably a couple of acres in total. The one area I struggle with is tracking people down. I know the names of the owners…I just can’t find them.
You can’t see it can you. This is the site of one of the biggest tragedies of recent times, and the primary reason why farmers should never ever be allowed to own historic properties. This is a spectacular Victorian mansion that was sold, as many were, in the 1950’s when the estate had virtually no value, and the mansion was stripped of all of it’s valuable fittings. Unfortunately, thereafter, the manion which, despite being stripped, was largely intact, has been systematically destroyed by the owner who owns that adjacent farm. It appears that they decided to use the place as somewhere to play with their JCB’s and other toys. At one point there was a large JCB parked next to the square tower attempting to peck away at it, and they were defeated by it’s sheer size and solidity. The situation now is that this tower appears to remain, probably for the same reason, but the owner, having had an unchallenged planning application to build a massive shed about 50 yards from the site appears to have swept away the remains and probably used it for hardcore for the shed. Every piece of stonework this place had had carving, or was very ornate. The sheer scale of ignorance and vandalism here is tragic in it’s proportions. And if anyone thinks this would have just fallen down anyway…no!! The manner of construction where almost every window was in the form of a stone arch would have kept most of the building up had it just been left to it’s own devices. Look at another of the mansions further down which is an almost perfect shell having been stripped of it’s roof around the same time as this one. There is a massive photo collection online where one local photographer recorded everything back in 1969 when it was almost completely intact. The irony here is that the mansion would have been very restorable and even the remaining tower could still form a spectacular holiday cottage that would make way more than any farm is likely to. This idiot really has destroyed the potential golden goose……HE SHOULD BE SHOT!!
This is what the mansion looked like in it’s original form
This is what remained in 1996. The Tower is the only section that I believe still exists, and only because it has resisted the determined efforts of the idiot who owns the property to destroy it.
This one is the complete opposite of the one above. And yes, there are the remains of a large mansion in there. Just below the now restored wing is where the central portion of the mansion was. It was a shell by the 1970’s and the walls in that section were apparently very dangerous and bowing so the owner pushed them down. But this is where the story is completely different. This owner, another farmer, but one with a completely different mindset went to the trouble of capping the walls of the then derelict shell with concrete. The result is that the rain, normally the killer of buildings such as these as water and frost slowly get into walls, pushing them apart, has been kept at bay, leaving almost all of the walls completely intact. The difference is phenomenal. This farmer then apparently had a major battle with the local planner when he wanted to restore part of it for his daughter, but common sense eventually prevailed. (believe it or not, this would be classed as unnecessary development in the open countryside which is often refused. The fact there are buildings already there appears to be conveniently ignored) I know this chap resisted offers to buy the entire mansion many years ago, but there remains a fully intact wing, larger than the other portion which just begs to be turned into a spectacular house. This is how these properties should end up. Their original form may no longer be practical, but portions of them make the most fascinating properties
And here is another classic mansion owned by a farmer. It’s looks almost intact doesn’t it, but this is deceptive. There remains almost nothing inside, the place is mostly a shell, the internals having almost completely collapsed and the roofs will be following shortly. Even worse, this place has some beautiful ranges of smaller buildings some of which are very beautiful, but these are also slowly collapsing. Set in it’s own parkland and abandoned for around 70 years it’s amazing that part of it even still stands…
Where is it you ask. Don’t be deceived. This is an almost perfect shell of a small gothic Victorian mansion which again, due to the manner of it’s construction with high quality stonework and predominantly stone arches, has remained almost completely intact despite losing it’s roof 70 years ago. This one had the ignominy of having a large nondescript 1970’s bungalow built about 100 yards away in the middle of what would have been it’s park. Curiously, this was being sold during the 1980’s for £10-15K, but a recent check showed that it’s now owned by…..no surprises….the adjacent farmer who either lacks the vision, or resources to do anything with it.
Here is a recent view taken in 2008. The shell is now pretty much the same, just more closed in by the trees
And yes, I have borrowed the image. Mine are on another computer. I even have one of my son at about 12 dwarfed by the huge ornate fireplace in the massive hallway….
Farms
Smallholdings
Houses
Cottages
Land
Keep watching this page, I will slowly fill it up with good examples of all of the above properties in the near future