This tiny house was nicknamed "Curtains Cottage" back in the day, because that's pretty much all that's left. I came here years ago, and never published any of the images, for some weird reason. Granted, in hindsight the photos aren't brilliant, but that has never stopped me before!
I think what did stop me was a lack of appreciation for things like this. Of course, I've always enjoyed abandoned places, but in 2016 I was specifically looking for abandoned places that still had that "time capsule" vibe, and anything that didn't, I considered unbloggable. It certainly didn't help that at the time there were adverts on the blog, and I was making money out of it. I only got ads because I was getting regular abuse from some weird old man, so I decided to monetise his visits. I renewed my passport off the back of that crackpot. Everything you see on my travel blog is thanks to him. But it tainted my priorities somewhat, and sent me down a bit of a path where I really only wanted to cover places that I thought would do well. Removing ads off the blog was the best thing I ever did. It made it a hobby again. It means I could focus on doing what I enjoy for no other reason than because I enjoy it. I guess years of recreational trespass and narrowly avoiding death have humbled me somewhat. These wrecks still tell a story. This was still someone's home once. It deserves to be blogged about with the rest of them. So I decided to do a quick write-up on it. It's not going to set me back too much. I only have a backlog of... 83 places to write about. Oh boy. At least I'll have something to do if I ever break my legs.
Slipping inside this cottage is rather simplistic. As you can see, a good chunk of the door is missing.
It kinda makes the chain and latch rather comical. Someone once hung this up for the last time and exited through the back, believing the building to be all secure and ready for the next occupant. I guess it takes more than a little chain to secure something against the ravages of time, but I love little details like this.
The house has some Victorian floor tiles still visible, poking through all the dirt and clutter.
And I assume this was the lounge, still retaining its fireplace.
History on this place is annoyingly elusive. Streetview dates back to 2009, and nothing has really changed. Old Victorian maps do show it, and even name it. But that name isn't repeated on any census data that I've been able to find, which means I've been unable to match any names to the place. In addition to that, it's in absolute rural isolation so I can't even ask the neighbours if they know anything. All I've got is what I can see.
There's a rather tatty curtain in the cupboard here.
I assume this was the kitchen. Nature has been very busy, left unattended and just barging in. As expected, when nature comes in, structural integrity goes out, and now it's possible to look up at the bedroom above.
The oldest photos I've seen of this place are from 2013, and they show the floor above still being intact, albeit treacherously soggy-looking. I was still doing urbex in 2013, although it was mostly rooftop stuff in and around Shrewsbury. I was just starting to venture out to abandoned houses in rural areas. So really, I guess if I had found this place any earlier, my life as an urbexer could have gone downhill faster than the true crime genre would if men ever learn to handle rejection. I'd be totally fucked, out in the middle of nowhere.
So, having established that the upper floors are about as trustworthy as Prince Andrew at a children's birthday party, it's time to head upstairs!
It's still nice up here, although is is just a mess of peeled wallpaper and ceiling debris.
There is an attic but we won't be going up there.
And here is the shot that gave the house its nickname. This is the room directly above the kitchen that collapsed at some point after 2013. The curtains make this particularly eerie, being so neat while the rest of the house crumbles around it. It's mad to think that one day someone opened these curtains for the last time, stepped outside and never came back, and now nobody can touch them.
But this was someone's bedroom once! That's what really gets me about wrecks, and it's so easy to overlook. Someone once slept in this room. Someone once painted it this adorable shade of blue, and hung up these curtains thinking that these two colours looked really nice together. They'd be heartbroken to see it like this.
I do love that older houses had fireplaces in their bedrooms. I kinda miss fireplaces in general, if I'm honest. They add character to a room, and given that I live in a featureless modern square that's younger than me, I'm a little bit sad.
The other bedrooms are slightly more intact, although I'm not about to go prancing across them. I'm afraid to so much as sneeze in these rooms. They are very pretty though.
The pink bedroom is very small, and probably belonged to a child. Now it just has a tattered curtain flapping in the wind.
Aaaand that's all I've got for this place. There isn't really much really. I'm sure there's a toilet shack somewhere in the tangled mess of brambles that encompasses the garden, but I'm content to leave it there.
This house is cute despite being small and empty. It's a total wreck but a pretty one. Its complete lack of history intrigues me more than annoys me, like it's a problem to be solved more than anything, and maybe I'll figure it out someday. But really, a blog on this place is long overdue. I went here years ago, and I've been sat on these photos for years. That's rather ridiculous.
As always if you like the blog and want to get regular updates, then social media is the way to do it. Alas, unlike 2006 when social media was just about posting our shit for our friends to see, now we have to contend with algorithmic hellscapes that just want our money. So I can't guarantee you'll see anything if you do follow me, but I'm on the main ones- Facebook, Twatter and Instagram, and I'm also on Threads so that I can log on occasionally and see a random post from a person I didn't follow that seems to serve only to bait me into an argument (fuck you Zuckerberg) and I'm on Vero and Blue Sky, where people can just post shit, and the people who follow them will see it, the way it should be.
Thanks for reading!
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