DERELICT SUNDAY - LECKHAMPTON HILL COTTAGE

If I ever wondered whether Mr. HCB thinks of me when he goes off to cricket, today’s little outing proved that he does!

When he got back from cricket on last Thursday, he was quite excited and said that he had seen a fantastic derelict house on Leckhampton Hill, which is the road he and his cricket buddy, Keith, travel to get to Cheltenham.  He thought this house would be great for Derelict Sunday, and in the true spirit of Blip, he didn’t take any photographs then, but suggested we went there after church today.  So after a great service this morning, off we went - the only trouble was that it started raining just as we left.

Undeterred, we kept going and reached our destination, Leckhampton Hill Cottage,  but by this time it was raining quite heavily.  I had taken a fleece with me, but all Mr. HCB had was a large umbrella.  We had to park in a lay-by some way from the house and then cross a busy road and walk down towards it.  From the opposite side of the road and looking at the front it was obvious that there was no roof, but I wanted to explore more, so crossed back over the road and went up a steep drive.  There were no barriers, so I just walked and hoped that no-one would see me.  When I got round to the back, it was amazing and I was so pleased to see such wonderful dereliction.  However, I didn’t get too close, as it looked as if parts of the roof could come tumbling down at any time - see the shot in the top middle of the collage.

I’m sure that many of the drivers going up and down this road were wondering what I was doing photographing a derelict house, but if they were Blippers, they would have known!  I couldn’t decide on one shot, so made a collage and hope you will appreciate the dereliction too.  

Having finished taking shots of the house, I crossed the busy road again to find Mr. HCB looking at a snail on one of the plants - it had travelled down the stem of one plant and was now doing some difficult manoeuvres in order to go back up the other side.  It was very interesting to watch and there were some beautiful wild flowers on the wayside - we think that the one in the extra collage looks like some sort of borage flower.  Then Mr. HCB pointed out a rabbit in the adjoining field, so fortunately, I had my 50x zoom Canon camera, so was able to get a shot of that too.

It might have been a wet afternoon, but we thoroughly enjoyed it and Mr. HCB was pleased that he had spotted this house.  I looked online and found out that the property has been derelict since about 2000 when the owner died, but that it was later occupied by squatters, who set fire to it and destroyed most of the building in about 2011;  obviously nothing much has been done to it since then.

Mega thanks to Mr. HCB for thinking of me and taking me to this derelict cottage today.  What a star he is!

“But the landscape of devastation 
     is still a landscape. 
          There is beauty in ruins.” 
Susan Sontag : Regarding the Pain of Others

P.S.  Every so often, and just at the moment, I feel overwhelmed with answering all the comments made on my Blips.  Having chatted to Mr HCB about this, instead of turning off my comments, I have decided, for the moment, not to answer every comment, as I normally do.  I hope you all know, how grateful I am for your support and kindness especially at difficult times.  However, I will still comment where I can and sprinkle stars and hearts.