Telfords so-called Lost Village

(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. I do this to protect locations and respect them. Trespass without forced entry is a civil offense 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 )

A while ago someone got in touch with news on an abandoned village in Shropshire. That's pretty huge news, folks. A whole abandoned village! Nicknames among those interested in forbidden tourism often get stuck to property, such as Red Dress Manor, Cloud House, Vanity House etc, and this was no different. This village subsequently became known as the "Village of Bones."
Sounds a bit corny, right? But it caught on. Someone completely different messaged my Facebook page (which you should totally go and like because I'm great), asking if I knew any locations in Telford, and mentioning that they had already been to the Village of Bones.

Now I personally won't title this blog the "Village of Bones" because it sounds a little clickbaity. I was also a little skeptical, considering an entire abandoned village in Shropshire a little difficult to believe in. But from what I could see of the location on Google Maps, it did indeed look like there might be a village there, due to there being a close little collection of buildings. So when Tamsin and Maya came to visit, we set off for the Lost Village, heading in Telfords general direction in a route that also allowed us to check on Shawbury School and a nuclear bunker.

Eventually we finally found ourselves on the outskirts of Telford. With no roads leading to the lost village anymore, we took off for it on foot, until we seemingly struck gold as we came to the first house.

Now allegedly this village dates back to the 1700s although the name of the village is not something I have to hand. But this particular house is apparently nicknamed the Doll House by those in the area, although maps from the 1800s label this building as The Thrift, likely named after Thrift Coppice, the surrounding woodland.
Its door hangs open and there doesn't seem to be any glass left in the windows, but otherwise it seems structurally stable.

 And a quick trip around the building revealed that there was a tree growing out of the back.

An old swing hung from a tree nearby. Now, given that the house is clearly ancient and falling apart, it would probably be a silly idea to have a go on this swing. But Tamsin did, and it held her weight quite well. Me? I'm too corwardly. I can climb a church no problem, but this time I was content to watch my friend, and film it in the hopes that I could make some easy dosh from ITV.

 Slipping inside was strange. I've been in all kind of abandoned houses, those which are like time capsules of their former owners, and those which are nothing more than empty shells. This place seemed to have qualities of both, and it sure raises the question, how long was it abandoned, and just sitting here? Did it once have a more Calcott Hall quality to it that we've all totally missed out on?
If thats true then this is a sad look at the future for just about every eerie time capsule house I've ever been to. A few more decades, a little more exposure to the elements, and they'll all look like this.

It's still furnished, and that adds further mystery to it. In all the passing years, nobody came back for their posessions. It truly is abandoned, with the former occupant most likely dead. I'm always respectful in abandoned houses, purely because they were someones home once, whatever condition they're in now. This is all that is left of someones entire existence, and that is sad.

The fireplace was of interest, as the front of it had fallen forwards, and we almost missed it completely. But when we propped it up, we found that it actually had quite a nice design.

Rather remarkably for a house in such condition, the stairs are still sturdy!

 There's not a lot to see up here, but a gigantic crack in one wall revealed that the houses ability to hold our weight was probably pretty temporary. It was falling apart.

 This was once a bedroom, and it comes complete with moldy old mattress. It's so strange to think that this was once somebodys home. How disturbingly eerie. There's also a chair placed over a hole in the floor. The weakened floor actually spread over quite a wide area though, and I imagine a few more winters will see this bedroom crash down into the room below.

So if you ever come here, make sure you're standing under the mattress. I mean nobody wants a bedroom to fall on their heads, but a moldy old mattress is at least softer than a chair.

 These old newspapers in the bedroom were dated 1984. Obviously it's not conclusive, but it is a clue, and it does provide a rough estimate for when this house was last lived in. In this case the house seems to have been vacant for longer than I've even been alive. However, it's not entirely vacant. In the bedroom we did find life.

Right there in the middle of the weak spot on the bedroom floor is a freakin' mushroom! This entertained us far more than it should have.

 Around the back of this house was a small derelict shack, which I presume would have functioned as a privy in the days when houses had their toilets external to the actual main building.
As you can see, it's falling to pieces and has barely any walls. However it's still in better shape than the toilets found in some pubs and clubs.

If you're new here I make that joke every time I find a toilet. If you're not new here, you're probably wondering why I'm bothering with exposition.

In the distance through the trees we spotted a second abandoned house, across the river, accessible via a small bridge. So there were at least two houses in this village. However Google Maps had still shown me quite a few structures. Where were they? It was time to find out as we skipped merrily around the abandoned village.

 This ones a shed!

 Well, unless that's a very eccentric persons abandoned coffee table.

 Ooooh!!! Over there is another shed! I mean come on, sure it's made out of stone but I'm pretty sure my wardrobes bigger.

 Over there is another shed!

But wait, there's more. From here we had another view of the second house. And next to it is... another shed!!!

But you know what the so-called Village of Bones is really lacking? Apart from actual dwellings? You guessed it! Bones!
It's almost as if its name is a teeny bit inaccurate.

We crossed the bridge and began heading for the second house, and its shed.

It does seem to be in worse shape than the doll house, but its shed is far worse. The overgrowth, and nettles, made the adventure quite a challenge, as the buildings were damn near impossible to access.

But wait, there's more!

Up there, there's some more sheds protruding from an ocean of nettles!
So far, the Village of Bones is failing to live up to its hype. I think "Farmhouses of nettles" make for a more accurate title. But we did make one morbid discovery, and it was this sheeps skull, with horns and everything.

Now what's intriguing about this sheep skull is it's still partially got rotting flesh and on closer inspection, there was also the remains of its eyeball. But it was the horns that truly made it photogenic. I grew up in the countryside, so finding sheep skulls is nothing new, but I've never found one thats retained its horns.

But it's not an unusual find on farm land,  which is what this area truly is, not a village. I'm not sure how many buildings are required to make a human settlement into a village, but I'm pretty sure it's more than two farm houses, and their sheds.
So I checked old maps dating back over hundreds of years just to see if a village ever stood here. When I compared the old maps to google maps I noticed that there was just one extra building that isn't here anymore. Just one! One more shed? Probably! Because this was never anything more than farm land.

Look at that, I was promised an abandoned village and it wasn't so... But not necessarily a disapointment because I genuinely enjoy abandoned houses.
Singular abandoned houses are cool enough, so why do people even call this the Lost Village, or Village of Bones?
The nickname probably came about as clickbait no doubt. But it fails to meet its hype.
Sure, we found a skull. You know who else has a skull? People! But I don't go around calling myself the Person of Bones because unless I'm about to battle He-Man, it sounds silly, just like whoever looked at this place and decided that it was an abandoned village.

Of course, I can't talk when it comes to accurate titles. It's a blog called "Shrewsbury from where you are not" and yet here we are lurking around Telford. And as for content, this is the same blog that brought you the Welsh Mafia...

I guess anyone who doesn't take me too seriously will know that I'm being facetious, and anyone who does take me seriously will say I'm full of shit. And if this was a verbal monologue I'd jokingly say that's okay because you probably can't spell Facetious without Faeces. Except now that it's written out I've realised that you actually can spell Facetious without Faeces, and the joke is ruined forever!

Anyway let's look at the second, and last (because it's not a village) farm house.

The second house is falling down. Now, other blogs about this house have referred to this house as "Jans Den" due to some writing somewhere dated 1987, which I personally did not see, but have seen photographs of it from other urban explorers. It makes me wonder, with this house being in worse shape than the Doll House, if it was abandoned first, and maybe a child who lived in the first house would play here. It would be great if we could figure out who Jan was. 1987 is only 31 years ago, so if she was a child then, shes likely still alive today.

 (This picture can be credited to the urbex blog, Desolate Decay)

The date also correlates with the date in the other house, putting the era that this place was occupied as the 1980s. To me it seems fairly logical that "Jan" was a kid growing up in the first house, with all this farm land to play in, which just so happened to include an empty old house which Jan used as a den. The fact that a child clearly lived here is further proven by the swing.

Now what's interesting and further supports my theory is that the doorway leading to the stairs has been blocked with barbed wire, due to the fact that the stairs are falling down. The upper floors are consequentially inaccessible, and at some point someone put effort into making sure nobody could try. Which means someone was aware that people might enter this derelict building, and rather than stop them outright, chose instead to take measures to at least make it safer. Perhaps because the landowners kid enjoyed playing here?

This house had loads of hooks in the ceiling, which isn't too unusual in old kitchens, but still cool to see.

Pushing my camera up through the floorboards, I was able to photograph the upper floor, even if I couldn't access it.

So that was it for the village. After two whole houses, a bunch of sheds, and one skull, I'm more inclined to call these houses the Doll House, and Jans Den, which seem to fit a lot better.

On a final note, Tamsin, Maya and I spotted something creepy through the trees. It appeared to be a man hanging. For a moment I was quite shocked. It's my 150th blog post and I was about to have my Logan Paul moment.

Thankfully on closer inspection it turned out to be a very odd scarecrow. Phew!

I'm not sure what I would do if I found an actual human body on an adventure. Hopefully that never happens.

That's all I've got today. Telford is proving to be quite a great place to explore, and I'm sure I'll return there for some much more exciting locations in the future. In the meantime, my next blog is a rooftopping one in Shrewsbury, and it'll be amazing. Don't forget to like my Facebook and follow me over on Instagram and Twitter.

Thanks for reading!