Return to the Christmas House

(DISCLAIMER: As an overall nice human being, I do not force entry, vandalize, steal, or disclose means of entry or location if it isn't obvious. Trespass without forced entry is a civil offence rather than a criminal one, which isn't worth acting on unless one causes damage, steals, has ill intent, etc. I simply photograph and leave everything as I find it. I do not condone breaking and entering, and I do not condone what I do. I'm a danger to myself and a terrible role model. )

I've never been to an abandoned house at night before, but over the winter months night time adventures have become fairly regular. Last year, Tree Surgeon and I traveled out to a ROC post and it was dark by the time we got there. Logically it shouldn't have made a difference, but emotionally it does. If you think climbing down a fifteen foot ladder into a bunker that hasn't been used for decades would give you the willies, try doing it in the dead of night. Personally I was all for camping out down there in spite of being reminded of that movie, The Hole, where we see Thora Birch dial 911 and still get through to the emergency services in spite of the film being set in Britain.

Otherwise, good film!

But back on topic, logically an abandoned house, whether furnished or not, should be less creepy than a hole in the ground. Not so! Check out Christmas House!

Since my last visit it's looking a lot less Christmassy, and the layout has changed. It's the sort of thing that takes away a lot of authenticity. On one hand that annoys me, but on the other it does make the adventure unique, even if I'm just retracing my steps. At the time of writing, it has probably changed again. For the Tree Surgeon, who wasn't my accomplice last summer, this was his first visit.

Changes aside, Christmas House is still photogenic and very creepy. It's just had a lot of visitors.

Interestingly the cottage next door is also abandoned, and they seem to have a furniture swap thing going on, depending on whether a visiting photographer thinks something will look better in the other house. The bird cage, for example, was in the cellar next door on my last visit.

I, however, leave things as I find them.

Okay, so now I'm a bit of a hypocrite because I took the Quality Street from the cabinet for a photograph... I promise I put it back!

Interestingly the clock is mains powered. When did they stop producing those?

Curiously, there is this hole in the wall that has clearly been bashed through into the abandoned cottage next door. But looking at the frame work under the wallpaper, it's obvious that the two houses were once linked.

In the kitchen things were considerably more morbid.

Here in the drawer is the corpse of a bird, plus we get to see the tree surgeon there in frame.

There was a smaller room, untouched by Christmas, but presumably equally as looted.

There are two bedrooms upstairs, and no bathroom. These cottages show their age by having outthouses!

The landing had a yellow colour scheme that I personally would not have in my own home, but in this case it kinda added to the buildings character.

On my first visit here, there was a dead owl upstairs but now it seems to have been eaten or something.

This newspaper is dated 1970. They're inaccurate indicators of how long the place has been abandoned for, but it does give us a rough idea. I can't imagine anyone hanging on to old newspapers for this long.

You can see from this bedroom, which still contains the remains of a bed, how tiny these rooms were purely because of the roof shape. 

I always find myself imagining what it would have been like to live in the places I explore. It would look pretty nice if it was all fixed up, and actually a home for someone. Onto the garden...

 The out house is a bucket. Hmm...

Yep, still in better shape than some of the toilets I see in active pubs and bars!

Some furniture was out in the shed.

The greenhouse.

Onto the next door cottage! This was actually still being lived in as recently as 2011. I know this because that's the most recent shot of the place on Google Streetview, and it shows people hanging up laundry in their garden, and their home looks a lot cleaner. I'm not sure why their home was abandoned, but I've heard that it was because of a chimney fire, and there's certainly damage in the chimney to support that idea. I'm not sure if this particular one was furnished when it was abandoned, or even if the Christmas House was. Everything that's been left in either house has been swapped over at some point, most likely. I'm very curious about why Christmas House is the popular one. The one next door would be great for a photoshoot too!

 Here's where the hole in the wall comes through.

The kitchen had a small tray in the drawers, which we assembled for the sake of a photo. 

Upstairs was pretty but had some significant damage to the walls of the chimney.

And lastly there was the cellar, where the bird cage had been when I'd come here initially.

I guess all the people who re-arrange this place don't want to drag the table up the stairs.

In all honesty, I think abandoned houses are awesome enough without needing to be re-arranged or sensationalised with silly stories, but Christmas House sure makes for some great pictures and an amazing atmosphere. The cottages themselves are ancient and evidence in the cellar suggests that it's close to collapsing. It probably has a completely different interior layout at the time of writing.

Oddly enough, I hadn't checked the mailbox on my first journey here but upon spotting it, I learned the name of the former occupant and also the name of the house. It was, rather whimsically, called Flowerpatch.

Meantime, I've been doing more actual adventures than blogging lately and I've got something of a backlog to work through. But at the same time I'm really excited to write about my recent adventures. So next time, I'll be beneath Shrewsbury once again, and then after that I'll write about my recent reasons for not being able to join the Shropshire Bloggers on their Ironbridge trek.
But I also have three or four blog posts that I want to get out as soon as the locations are no longer accessible, so you might see some of them injected into the blog flow.

But it's all going to be great. The adventure continues. In the meantime, you can actually see some of my recent explores that I have yet to blog about, as well as reminders of the old ones, if you follow me on Instagram. Also follow me on Twitter if you don't want to miss a blog post. And of course, remember to share this if you think it'll interest people.
Also, regarding my recent photo shoot in Laura's Tower that I recently blogged about, the photographer Giselle has recently done a video that shows some of the pictures she's taken of me and other people who got involved. It's a project that challenges perception on gender identity, and it's a project I'm totally supporting. When it comes to the subject of non-binary gender identity, I really think that a massive chunk of the world needs to grow the fuck up, and just learn to accept. Recently a woman got fired from KFC because she has a willy. Who cares? She's serving processed chicken, not making babies!
So this project "Same But Different" is quite thought provoking, in that it blurs the lines between gender. You can see the video presentation here.

Anyway, to all my readers, click the links to social media, and if you can spare some money for the Adventure Fund, please click the donate button up at the top. I'm getting between four to five digit numbered blog views these days and if every single one donated 2p, it would all make a difference collectively.
Although donations above 2p would be appreciated. All proceeds of course go to this blog.

But far more importantly is that you go out and make someone smile. Compliment a stranger, help someone out, turn someones bad day into a good one. Bonus points if you get a hug.

Thanks for reading. Stay awesome!