DERELICT SUNDAY - ANOTHER GOOD FIND!

After watching Church online this morning, we had a quick bite to eat and then off we went to try and find some dereliction.  Actually, Mr. HCB said he knew where he was taking me, as just along the road from the burnt out house I blipped a couple of weeks ago, we had seen a derelict cottage.  It was drizzling a little but I didn’t think it would stop me taking photographs;  however, the rain soon came down quite hard, but undeterred, we carried on.  

We managed to park in a lay-by just along the road and walked back towards the site.  I hadn’t realised there was a high metal fence all around the property, with large “KEEP OUT” signs - and I’m sure you will be pleased to know we did just that!  However, I was glad I had taken my selfie stick, as I was able to put it out to its full length and take shots over the fence.

There was a public footpath running alongside the property, so I walked along, but as it was quite muddy and raining hard by this time, Mr. HCB just stood and waited patiently for me - so of course, I had to take a shot of him and have included this in my collage - but you would have recognised him, I’m sure!  

The main photograph shows the property from the side, the bottom left is from the front and the bottom right is from the back, having wandered along the muddy path.  I’m not sure how the large blue sign got up on the roof though.  The middle shot shows the fence along the side of the property, covered with graffiti.  

I wasn’t sure I would be able to find out anything about it, but after doing some sleuthing online - and you know I love doing that - I found out that it was sold at auction last September being “A 0.5 acre mature site located on the A420 with a derelict building formerly known as Walnut Cottage, Little Coxwell”.  It has obviously been derelict for sometime since the information also said that in 2013 planning was granted to create “a stylish family home” but it was not known whether the planning consent was still live or had lapsed.  Amazing what you can find out these days and it will be interesting to see what happens to this site, but I do wonder why a cottage like this was allowed to become this derelict.

Just had an interesting half an hour on the telephone speaking to Daniel, a journalist from our local paper, Swindon Advertiser, after writing to ask if they were interested to do a feature after I had completed 9 unbroken years of Blipping.  It will be appearing in the paper on Tuesday, so more news after that.  I did say that the papers are often filled with bad news and some good news might cheer people up and Daniel agreed.  I think I said the right things - I definitely said what a wonderful site this is and how friendly everyone is - but I realise now how difficult it is conducting interviews over the telephone rather than face-to-face.  Time will tell!

“In the old house, 
     the past hung in the air 
          like motes of dust 
waiting to be illuminated 
     by the sharp rays of memory.” 
John Connolly