Exploring the deserted castle

Last weekend, I went to explore a derelict castle which is a few miles from my house. Dad had read about it on one of the historic building registers, but it is well hidden, and we had to get permission to visit it. 

It was an amazing find because it is absolutely massive with loads of rooms, towers, servants quarters and even a chapel.

From the outside it looks amazing, just like you would expect a castle to look like. It almost looks lived in. This is how it looks from the north west corner.

Most of it is three stories and some of it is four stories. The ground floor seems to be mostly for the servants. It is really overgrown. A lot of the north side was just covered in ivy.

Dad and I started at the main entrance, and worked round the north east side. At the east side we found this door.

The door was wedged shut, but there was another way you could see what was beyond it. It was a kind of covered courtyard, covered with a glass roof which I think was added in the 1930s.

The door straight ahead went into the main house and must have been used by the servants.

I was taking loads of notes, and I made a sketch of this area. Then Dad and I continued round the outside. This is the tower on the south east corner. It had a toilet in it !

When you looked from the courtyard, you could see this tower was built on a much older foundation. The farmer next door told us the the middle bit was built in 1810, then the wings (the bits at east and west) were added later, in 1867.

You can see 1867 on all the metal guttering:

The house is much prettier from the south. Here you can see the two wings.

Hidden in the undergrowth is a balcony and stairs which is covered with a glass roof like the courtyard. There are stairs that go up from the ground. The farmer said the balcony was added later in the 1930s when the owners made this the main entrance. You can see they used rough stone bricks not smooth red bricks.

The concrete underneath was already starting to split.

The balcony was really overgrown. There were two windows, a small door, and a space where the main entrance door used to be.

From the doorway you could see what was the main staircase for the house. This picture makes it look like it was in fairly good condition.....

...but if you looked down you could see all the floor has rotted and collapsed. This house had dry rot, which is where the wood all rots away, and why it was so unsafe inside.It was supposed to be demolished in the 1960s but they never got round to it.

Looking up, you could see the landing on the 2nd floor, and then see through the ceiling up to the 3rd floor. Because the main stairs didn't go up to the 3rd floor, I think it was used for servants.

This was another set of stairs next to the main one. I think these were for the servants because they were narrower and less fancy. Because they were made of stone, they hadn't rotted.

There were lots of little details which showed what a beautiful house it had been.

There was this elaborate plasterwork in one of the public rooms which was amazing.

The original blinds were also there in some of the rooms.

This was an old horse-hair double mattress which had rotted down just leaving the hair.  Birds were using it to feather their nests.

Some of the drain covers had on who made them as well.

This is the west turret on the south side. It looked okay from a distance but you could see the roof was starting to go.

This was a room on the west side. The ceiling is the floor of the dining room. You can see how badly the wood has rotted and why the dining room floor wouldn't be safe to stand on.

The chimneys on the west side were at an angle, which was a nice feature.

This was one of the rooms on the ground floor in the original part of the house.

You could see the ceilings there were stone, not wood, so they had held up better.

Dad and I were there for almost three hours, exploring and taking notes and drawing sketches. It is rotting all the time so some of the features there now might not be there in a few years, which is sad.

I have explored lots of old buildings, but never anything like this. It was amazing to explore.

Have a good Easter !

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