Opencast mining.

[Ixia]

Not really sure why I'm posting this.....But as a child/teenager I spent many happy years at a relatives farm in New Cumnock, Ayrshire, the house was lovely, Victorian I guess, with a beautiful sweeping staircase (we had a swing tied underneath it), tall sash windows with shutters, I remember the doors still had what I guess were the original paint finishes (grained to look like hard wood). Some of the stonework was rumoured to have come from Waterhead Castle. The surrounding countryside was beautiful.

Foolishly I decided to look it up on Google Earth and found this....

The farm has completely gone.

The 2nd photo was taken from the farm just up the road, which was a typical white washed, dormer windowed Scottish farmhouse, with history dating back to the 1700s. It's now derelict and teetering on the edge of the mine. My aunt's farm was just by the hillock that can be seen on that photo.

 

[Feltwell]

That is a pretty extreme example of change!

I looked up on Google Streetview a house where I lived as a child in the late 1970's. On the other side of the road was a lovely early Victorian farmhouse. My parents seriously considered buying it at one point - I can remember being very excited as some of the bedrooms had what looked like a wardrobe in the corner, but when you opened the door it lead to a second staircase. The idea of a bedroom with a "secret" staircase is highly exciting when you're 6!

Anyway, my parents couldn't afford it and never did buy it. I can remember it being in a good state of repair - so imagine my shock in seeing it on Google Streetview now as being completely derelict, windows smashed, roof collapsing in etc. Makes you wonder how a house, an attractive one in a nice location at that, can go from being a perfectly good family home in a good state of repair to a wreck in only 30 odd years.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

It's worse on the continent
http://www.heuersdorf.de/English1.html

Much worse (use Google translate)
http://www.radio101.de/otzenrath/

 

[Penners]

It's worse on the continent

But of course it is - they're foreign.

I'm afraid that's the price you pay for not being British.

 

[Penners]

One can only hope that the New Cumnock opencast site will eventually be restored to some sort of civilised use, like the plans for Kelty, near Kirkcaldy.

http://www.s1kelty.com/news/kelty-landscape-to-be-transformed-by-huge-park-project.html

Mind you, I have no idea whether the Kelty project is still going ahead, or whether financial constraints have killed it.

 

[Ixia]

I grew up in Clitheroe, Lancs, where Castle Cement has always had a big presence, there was always talk of big projects to convert their quarries into leisure parks/ boating lakes and such. Asfaik it has never happened, though the edges of the disused quarries were great places to find fossils.

A bit off topic, but whilst looking for photos of my Aunt's farm, I stumbled across this website.....

http://www.geograph.org.uk/

It's a project to photograph every grid reference on the OS maps. Quite a few period properties on there as well :wink: