Urbex DevilThe derelict remains of St Mary’s and All Saints Church is situated in rural Thundridge, Hertfordshire. Although the building is Grade II listed all that remains is the old stone tower and abandoned graveyard.
These ruins are often known to the locals as Cold Christmas Church, adopting the name of the nearby village of the same name.
Unfortunately a a semi failed attempt as the site is now near totally under water and without scuba gear or at least some very good waders, there was no entrance to the tunnels or any rooms at all. With the extent of flooding we cannot imagine it will ever be accessible.
The North Wales Lunatic Asylum was the first psychiatric institution built in Wales; construction began in 1844 and completed in 1848 in the town of Denbigh. The U-shaped Tudorbethain style hospital was built due to the spreading word of mistreatment of Welsh people in English asylums; The North Wales Hospital would be a haven for welsh speaking residents to seek treatment without prejudice or a language barrier.
Not much information on this one and not going to share too much. A lonely little “shack”, as I like to call it, located somewhere in Essex that amazingly I drove past every single day and didn’t even notice it until a fellow urbexer pointed it out to me.
Good little explore and was great to kill half an hour, there wasn’t too much to see other than the “shack” itself which was in a pretty bad way.
Derbyshire Royal Infirmary (DRI) was established in 1810 on land formerly part of Derby’s Castlefield estate on land near what is now Bradshaw Way and the A6 London Road. It was known as the Derbyshire General Infirmary at the time. In 1890 a Typhoid outbreak sweeped through the hospital, and the buildings design was blamed. The hospital is entirely demolished, a year later Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone of what would become Derbyshire Royal Infirmary. The neo-Jacobean building was completed in 1894, and its main features were its ‘Onion’ shaped domed towers and its central corridor which ran the length of the hospital.
The Carlyon Beach area began to develop as a popular recreation area in the 20th century, with one of the visitors being the Prince of Wales. During a visit he suggested that a sports club could be constructed on the beach to wealthy locals and in the early 1930s the building, known as the Riviera Club opened to the public. The complex featured a spa with swimming pool, tea rooms and tennis courts where Edward VIII and Mrs Wallis Simpson were reputed to have visited it.
Something different this one, a small cottage abandoned and lost in another time. However the cottage itself was not my main attraction to this one, it was simply the owners amazing collection of classic cars, seemingly rusting away in a car graveyard to the rear of the property. The location of said property is remaining quiet to protect it from the eBay warriors.
Coleshill, not far from the NEC, is a large group of buildings owned by the Catholic church. The site is operated by The Father Hudson Society, which was originally founded by a priest, Father George Vincent Hudson. Father Hudson died in 1936 and was buried in the grounds though he was later disinterred and reburied within the Society’s church. Though there are active buildings on site there are also a number of abandoned buildings too.
It was built as the Charnwood Convalescent Hospice for injured soliders in 1937. After WW2 it was made NHS and became a rehab centre/home for amputees and called Zachery Merton Convalescent Home. In 1999, the home was bought by the infamous Primelife Ltd and was renamed Bradgate Care Home. In 2006 Primelife moved into Charnwood Oaks in Shepshed, leaving Bradgate Care Home empty. Since then multiple housing associations have bought the site with the most resent application for demolition dating July 2012.
The large mansion on site, Great Barr Hall, had its beginnings in the 17th Century, but was remodelled both by Joseph Scott in 1777, and in the 19th century by various occupants.
The Lunar Society, an infomal group of leading engineers, industrialists, scientists and thinkers of the day met here in the early 1800s. the hospital colony for those with severe learning difficulties was opened after the first world war. Originally known as Great Barr Park Colony for the mentally defective, it was later re-named St Margarets Hospital.
