I think I first saw the house about six months ago when I happened to spot it from the top deck of a bus. It’s set back from the road behind the hedgerows so it isn’t easily seen if you’re down at ground level. As soon as I saw it I wanted to grab my camera and go explore but visions of angry farmers with shotguns or worse made me cautious. I didn’t know how to find out who owned it and the only way in was barred by two large and sturdy gates so I left it at that. Still, everytime we drove past where it was I would strain to catch a glimpse of it to make sure it was still there hoping I would get my chance.
Then a couple of weeks ago I noticed that the gates had been stolen which meant the driveway was clear and anyone could just walk right up to the house. Of course I wanted to go straight away, but, for some reason Matt wasn’t too keen on that idea. I was worried that now that the gates were down it was more likely that the place would be looted if there was anything there to loot and I wanted to see it as it was. Finally, Matt gave in to my constant talking about it and a week ago, when we were driving past, we pulled up to the gates and he got out to have a look. While Eve and I waited in the car I watched Matt’s retreating back as he disappeared up the driveway. In the distance all I could see was a single black window between the trees, and was thinking that if this was a movie I’d be shouting at the telly right now telling the actors not to be so stupid. I was just starting to wonder what I would do if he didn’t come back, when he appeared at the top of the driveway. I felt it was a good sign that he wasn’t running with a pack of dogs at his heels signalling for me to start the car.
When he got back to the car and described the house I was even more excited about going up to see it myself. Matt’s a real bluff Yorkshire man but he admitted it was quite spooky up there. With Eve in the car with us though we had to leave it for another time. Yesterday we finally got our chance. It was early afternoon, the sun was very bright so the conditions weren’t exactly perfect but I figured if I didn’t get any good shots we’d go back some other time. We parked the car a small ways away and walked back to the house. Matt didn’t help my nerves by telling me he was sure he could hear dogs but in the end we were able to wander around for an hour or so. I could have stayed longer, and I would have loved to have gone inside the house but it had been damaged in a fire and didn’t look safe at all:
One of the spookiest things about the place were the crows…hundreds and hundreds of them in the trees all around the house so the noise was really loud. Every now and then they would all take off at once and the sky would be full of them:
There were plenty of outhouses filled with old rusted junk and barbed wire:
The house had the most personality though, if you could call it that. This chair was sat on the old burned out porch, the perfect place to watch the world go by:
More tomorrow…
