So, here's my first proper post on these forums! Wish me luck!
This was my first ever 'Urbex' expedition, without really knowing what it was! My girlfriend told me about this deserted cottage and outhouse, near to Normanby-le-wold in Lincolnshire, so we went for a little look.
The cottage was deserted in the 1950s or so from what I can find out from the locals, this rough date should be about right, though it could have been left empty from around 1970. (More on that later).
The cottage is situated in a clearing within some woods, you can see the roof of the cottage (in the shadows of the trees on the left), and the small outhouse (on the right in the corner of a field boundary) in this image from flash earth: http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=53.443414&lon=-0.295448&z=20&r=0&src=msl
There is no front door and the floorboards as you go in aren't particularly strong, several have already been broken.
The main room is to the right, and has a fireplace. By far the most interesting thing in this room is the old lantern lying on the floor.
Leading off this main room is a bedroom, much of the roof and ceiling in this room are gone, but there is the remains of a bed leaning up against the wall, with several parts lying around the room.
Going back to the main room the second door leads through to what I assume must have been the kitchen, this room is very much derelict, the majority of the roof is on the floor, so there's very little detail left.
Heading back through the main room, past the front door is the final room of the cottage, I assume this would have been the main/master bedroom; it has a fireplace and a window looking out across the clearing towards the outhouse.
Down the hill, the outhouse is built of the same familiar yellowy local Lincolnshire stone, it's still in very good condition with pretty much fully intact roof. Inside it is clear that at some point the owner of the cottage must have owned some kind of livestock. It very much looks like they had a cow, due to the layout of the room and the wooden structure inside.
One of the most interesting things about this find, is the artefacts lying around outside the old outhouse. There are several parts of what I assume were a fire surround, a bowl and a lot of milk bottles, some of which are semi-buried, some of which are on top of the ground covered in overgrowth.
The milk bottles give a good estimate of the time period the cottage was deserted. The bottles are from 'Clover Dairies', the final paragraph of this article from the Grimsby Telegraph Bygones section: http://www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk/bygo...ts-lorriesarticle-856553-details/article.html states that Clover Dairies, which was based in Willoughby (just south of Alford, and east of another village called Claxby!) was taken over by Northern Dairies.
Looking at the history of Northern Dairies, it was created, as Northern Dairies in 1942, and changed its name to Northern Foods PLC in 1972. So the milk bottles were left there at some point between those dates.
A very fun and very easy trip for a first go! Especially with a little bit of 'Time Teaming' to date the bottles, which was certainly interesting!
Let me know if this was a decent report, and anything I can do to improve my style for next time!
This was my first ever 'Urbex' expedition, without really knowing what it was! My girlfriend told me about this deserted cottage and outhouse, near to Normanby-le-wold in Lincolnshire, so we went for a little look.
The cottage was deserted in the 1950s or so from what I can find out from the locals, this rough date should be about right, though it could have been left empty from around 1970. (More on that later).
The cottage is situated in a clearing within some woods, you can see the roof of the cottage (in the shadows of the trees on the left), and the small outhouse (on the right in the corner of a field boundary) in this image from flash earth: http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=53.443414&lon=-0.295448&z=20&r=0&src=msl
There is no front door and the floorboards as you go in aren't particularly strong, several have already been broken.
The main room is to the right, and has a fireplace. By far the most interesting thing in this room is the old lantern lying on the floor.
Leading off this main room is a bedroom, much of the roof and ceiling in this room are gone, but there is the remains of a bed leaning up against the wall, with several parts lying around the room.
Going back to the main room the second door leads through to what I assume must have been the kitchen, this room is very much derelict, the majority of the roof is on the floor, so there's very little detail left.
Heading back through the main room, past the front door is the final room of the cottage, I assume this would have been the main/master bedroom; it has a fireplace and a window looking out across the clearing towards the outhouse.
Down the hill, the outhouse is built of the same familiar yellowy local Lincolnshire stone, it's still in very good condition with pretty much fully intact roof. Inside it is clear that at some point the owner of the cottage must have owned some kind of livestock. It very much looks like they had a cow, due to the layout of the room and the wooden structure inside.
One of the most interesting things about this find, is the artefacts lying around outside the old outhouse. There are several parts of what I assume were a fire surround, a bowl and a lot of milk bottles, some of which are semi-buried, some of which are on top of the ground covered in overgrowth.
The milk bottles give a good estimate of the time period the cottage was deserted. The bottles are from 'Clover Dairies', the final paragraph of this article from the Grimsby Telegraph Bygones section: http://www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk/bygo...ts-lorriesarticle-856553-details/article.html states that Clover Dairies, which was based in Willoughby (just south of Alford, and east of another village called Claxby!) was taken over by Northern Dairies.
Looking at the history of Northern Dairies, it was created, as Northern Dairies in 1942, and changed its name to Northern Foods PLC in 1972. So the milk bottles were left there at some point between those dates.
A very fun and very easy trip for a first go! Especially with a little bit of 'Time Teaming' to date the bottles, which was certainly interesting!
Let me know if this was a decent report, and anything I can do to improve my style for next time!
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