I wanted to post something today to confirm that - after considerable plotting and scheming - we have decided to have our house-cooling party on the weekend of the 16th/17th of January. A poll asking which day you all prefer will soon follow, and then I will post some final plans.
That's not much of an entry though, especially considering how infrequently I update this lj, so I also want to tell a little story. Now that the summer is well and truly over, and with the end of the year looming (rather frighteningly) closer, I'm taking a moment to look back at the past few months and to draw a brief sketch of one hot summer afternoon spent in lovely company, and rather extraordinary surroundings. I often visit with photographers who have, through virtue of multiple shoots, become good friends. One such poor unfortunate soul is the photographer Admirion, who I have been working with for years. Knowing my love of ruins and old derelict buildings, he very kindly surprised me the last time I was up visiting him by taking me to see an incredible old stone house near Sheffield which has been vacant for many years. The house was set in acres of overgrown woodland and looked every inch like something out of an old horror film – large and brooding, and possessed of that disturbing quality of
presence which so many condemned buildings seem to have. I know that sounds fanciful, but it was one of those places where you really do feel that, despite the isolation and quiet, like you’re being watched, and that the house is somehow alive… or at least aware of you. Even though it’s little more than a boarded up shell, the house has that strange and uncomfortable beauty which can only be created by absolute desolation.
It may seem strange, but I truly have always loved walking in old, forgotten houses. It's immensely satisfying trying to trace the memory of those who have lived there before, and to discover something of the many secrets such places always hold. The more fragile the building the more tangible those glimpses of the past seem, and it's so very poignant knowing that the house could be little more than one storm away from collapse, and that you might be the last person to ever walk on those crumbling floors. As the pictures somewhat show, the house looked intact from the outside but the floors and roof had both collapsed, leaving staircases that led to gaping black holes and doors opening into nowhere. Yet through the mass of fallen wood and stone you still sometimes saw small remains of plaster and decoration which spoke of an old grandeur now lost forever. I truly could have spent all day crawling around in it because it was fascinating, but it was structurally very unsound and therefore dangerous to move about in - in most of the rooms you couldn’t even take a step without things shifting or collapsing. However, at least I got to see it, and because photographers never seem to go anywhere without a camera I even got to have a few pictures taken there. The pictures are very impromptu - we didn't plan them, so there’s no theme here, and I’m not really dressed up (well, I’m thankfully dressed at least a little because we were on our way to an event when we stopped to see the house.) They also don’t capture nearly enough of the incredible atmosphere of the place, but I am happy to have them because they’ll always be a little memento of a beautiful, if somewhat sad, experience for me.
I'm posting the pictures here on lj because I know that many people on my fl are likewise interested in derelict places. Buildings, like people, have so many stories to tell and there's something quite tragic about seeing a beautiful old manor like this lost and abandoned, quietly disappearing while the world moves on around it. This house won't be around for very long - I'm sure by now it's even more of a mess than it was when I saw it - but hopefully this little post will preserve it in memory even as it slowly falls away into nothingness.
Photography: Admirion
Location: Middle of Nowhere
( Derelict )
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