Your favourite old building?

[DaveBrigg]

Thanks for the recommendation Pford75. Mrs P and I were talking about a trip to Venice only the other day.

If you want the same ambience, but without the crowds of tourists, can I recommend Hull?

 

[Penners]

Thanks for the publicity from Hull Tourist Board, Dave.

When I come, could I reserve the big blue-and-yellow gondola, rather than the little green one?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Just back from camping near Bath so a new one for my list of favourites is the Tithe Barn at Bradford on Avon:View attachment 2View attachment 1
and the Saxon Church:

 

[Flyfisher]

I visited a house yesterday that has extensive wildlife refuge areas, despite the sterling efforts of the gardener. :wink:

Not sure about 'sterling efforts' but I did have a little tidy-up with my fork and wheelbarrow earlier today . . .

 

[Penners]

Elderly tractor, elderly trailer, stylish new Panama hat...

...how British.

 

[Penners]

Just back from camping near Bath so a new one for my list of favourites is the Tithe Barn at Bradford on Avon

I visited the barn last year, Gareth. 'aaaaaa' just about sums it up - it's glorious. Did you find the old tumbledown water mill about a mile downstream from the barn, where the canal crosses the river?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Just back from camping near Bath so a new one for my list of favourites is the Tithe Barn at Bradford on Avon

I visited the barn last year, Gareth. 'aaaaaa' just about sums it up - it's glorious. Did you find the old tumbledown water mill about a mile downstream from the barn, where the canal crosses the river?

Yes indeed, Avoncliff, just at the bottom of the field we were camping in (and across the river from a pub that wasn't as good as it should have been)

 

[Penners]

I entirely agree about the pub. And I'm not sure what that odd 'crystals and alternative conciousness' shop is doing next door. Perhaps regular clientele from canal hippies?

 

[Juju]

We visited The Commandery in Worcester last year. I thought it was amazing - it's huge and although much of it is unfurnished, you can spend ages just walking round admiring the beams, flooring and fireplaces. We ran out of time and were nearly locked in!

http://www.worcestercitymuseums.org.uk/comm/commind.htm

Also another favourite place of mine (unlikely to be on most people's list of tourist attractions) is the museum in Milton Keynes which is an old farmhouse with rooms decorated in an appropriate style together with a 'street' of Victorian shops, a telephone museum, collections of old lawnmowers (!) and agricultural machinery. When I lived in Milton Keynes, I must have been there about 5 times - all my visitors were dragged along.

http://www.mkmuseum.org.uk/

 

[Micky]

It's a close run thing Bayleaf farmhouse which is etched on my memory following a primary school trip...albeit mainly the hysteria over the garderobe or Crawley Hall where I got married 30 years or so later....

http://www.wealddown.co.uk/home-page-english.htm

now I've sadly left Sussex

http://www.guyscliffehouse.co.uk/photopost/

If only I could win the Euro millions....what a restoration job that would be!

 

[biffvernon]

As an aside to the Beatrix Potter posts, we once considered buying the house that Eileen Soper - Potter's illustrator - used to live in.

Surely Beatrix Potter was her own illustrator. Eileen Soper illustrated for Enid Blyton.

 

[Flyfisher]

Er, yes.

I knew she was associated with a famous author and the Potter comments made me recall the house, thus putting two and two together and coming up with the completely wrong answer. Thanks for the correction!

 

[DaveBrigg]

You must have got her confused with her older sister, Eva
"When excused from aiding her father with his etchings, Eva, a skilled potter, produced designs for Royal Worcester"

 

[Flyfisher]

You're too kind, but I think it was simple brain failure. I had not heard of Eileen Soper at all before viewing the house and it was the agent who told us all about her, and her sister. It was also featured in the local paper on more than one occasion and a book of her animal drawings was released soon after her death, called 'Wildings' after the house name. This was early 1990s. I must have known about the Enid Blyton connection at the time so my Potter reference must have been brain-fade.

 

[Ian Bond]

OK, it's fallen into disrepair and it is nothing like the Wuthering Heights building as described in the novel, but the location is a good enough match.

When it comes to literature and sophistication, you cannot beat Yorkshire, as this film clip demonstrates admirably ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA5HIhCIbgw&feature=related

 

[Penners]

How do you wuther? How will I know whether I've wuthered? Do you need special weather to wuther?

So many worries... so little time.

 

[Ian Bond]

I'm not sure wuther or not I should even try to answer that one Penners.

Just got back from a stroll up there on t' moors, and it was reasonably wuthering weather for the time of year - a refreshing breeze I should say.

Nice old building although the wuthering weather, souvenir hunters and neglect by the landlord ....

.... Reduced it to this ....

Pity - I could see myself living up there, serving tea and oatcakes to the Pennine Way walkers.

 

[Flyfisher]

Those remains look suspiciously neat to me. Something more than simple neglect and souvenir hunters, surely?
Fantastic outlook though.

 

[Ian Bond]

You're right to be suspicious, well spotted Flyfisher.

There's a bit of a story to this, but it in brief it was abandoned, allowed to fall into disrepair, succumbed in part to vandalism, but was later consolidated to conserve the remains for posterity, hence the unusual appearance of the ruins.

http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm199798/cmhansrd/vo970723/debtext/70723-17.htm

At least there's something left of the building, and even if it bears no resemblance to the Wuthering Heights of Emily Bronte's novel it's a special place and well worth the walk.

Just watch out for the sheep when you're eating your lunch up there, or they'll have your sandwiches. So many tourists have fed the sheep over the years they've developed a taste for packed lunches.

 

[Penners]

Just watch out for the sheep when you're eating your lunch up there, or they'll have your sandwiches.

Hmmm - one of my favourite sandwich fillings is cold roast lamb. :shock: