I wasn't too sure where this place really sat as it has had a few uses down the years.
Originally owned and run by a railway as a hotel and for many years after its hotel days the local health authority used it as offices. Rumour has it that it will be returned to its original use soon, however after our inspection I don't see that being anytime soon.
Opened in 1883 and operated jointly by ttwo rail firms In 1923 ownership passed to a different group. Eventually as a result of the nationalisation of the railway in 1948, it was passed into the hands of the BTC's Hotels Exec, and finally onto British Transport Hotels, who sold it in 1950. It has subsequently been, and as of September 2014 remains, used as offices
Located on a small hill, the red-brick building overlooks the railway station, to its north-west a beautiful park and a river to its south-east. In its heyday, the hotel was connected by a covered footbridge to the local station.
Entry to this one is not for the portly, I can atest to this from experience. Having found the fence cut and noted that there was no-one on site at all we took our time wandering the perimeter looking for an obvious way in. Eventually we narrowed this down to two possible points. One was far from easy and presented more risk of injury than we were prepared to allow.
The second concerned me as I am far from svelte, however after some cojoling, and a screw popping out further up the frame, mainly due to me flailing around like a beached whal I finally popped in the window.
We made our way round the place and despite it being fairly stripped a lot of the old character was still there, we were just packing up when we heard the obvious sounds of trouble outside. They were far from quite and despite the metal sheeting on the windows impairing our view we waited until they were obviously half way round the building on the opposite side to ou egress we made our move and slipped out.
Patting the siding back down and moving away from it quicky. Just as we rounded the corner there they were a small group of teens looking for a way in and clearly looking to smash things.
Anyway on with the photo's:
Originally owned and run by a railway as a hotel and for many years after its hotel days the local health authority used it as offices. Rumour has it that it will be returned to its original use soon, however after our inspection I don't see that being anytime soon.
Opened in 1883 and operated jointly by ttwo rail firms In 1923 ownership passed to a different group. Eventually as a result of the nationalisation of the railway in 1948, it was passed into the hands of the BTC's Hotels Exec, and finally onto British Transport Hotels, who sold it in 1950. It has subsequently been, and as of September 2014 remains, used as offices
Located on a small hill, the red-brick building overlooks the railway station, to its north-west a beautiful park and a river to its south-east. In its heyday, the hotel was connected by a covered footbridge to the local station.
Entry to this one is not for the portly, I can atest to this from experience. Having found the fence cut and noted that there was no-one on site at all we took our time wandering the perimeter looking for an obvious way in. Eventually we narrowed this down to two possible points. One was far from easy and presented more risk of injury than we were prepared to allow.
The second concerned me as I am far from svelte, however after some cojoling, and a screw popping out further up the frame, mainly due to me flailing around like a beached whal I finally popped in the window.
We made our way round the place and despite it being fairly stripped a lot of the old character was still there, we were just packing up when we heard the obvious sounds of trouble outside. They were far from quite and despite the metal sheeting on the windows impairing our view we waited until they were obviously half way round the building on the opposite side to ou egress we made our move and slipped out.
Patting the siding back down and moving away from it quicky. Just as we rounded the corner there they were a small group of teens looking for a way in and clearly looking to smash things.
Anyway on with the photo's:
