# Uplands Mansion - Cambridge



## nelly (Apr 27, 2012)

I think that my splore buddies are starting to worry that I've gone a bit "Rurex" on them with my last two reports 

Visited on a mad splore day in Cambridge with UrbanX being our tour guide, also along on this were Skeleton Key, Mr and Mrs Troglodyte, Chieftan, and Ry
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In a quiet Cambridgeshire village there once stood two magnificent houses called Whitefields and Uplands

*Recent history*

The local folklore is as follows (Or what you can gather from several variations of it)

Both houses were owned by a local self made millionaire named as Mr Ratte, who as half of a sucessful local company called "Ratte & Kett" made a fortune in the Cambridge electronics and computing industry.

The story has it that one night after a furious row with his Wife, Mr Ratte decided to burn both of the houses to the ground, the stories differ slightly here, one says that Mr Ratte blocked his extremely long drive with cars to stop the fire brigade from putting out the fire while another version claims that the fire brigade couldn't get up the drive due to low hanging trees, either way the fire engines had to slowly make their way across a field and by the time they arrived Whitefileds was totally destroyed and Uplands wasn't far behind.
The remains of the Whitefields mansion was demolished and bulldozed into the swimming pool which just leaves the remains of Uplands to be seen today

*The Past*
Uplands was built in 1893 by the Physiologist W.H. Gaskell. 







Gaskell was educated at Trinity College Cambridge, receiving his BA in 1869. His key discoveries included the sequence of cardiac contraction, and autonomic control of the heart. He also made progress in mapping the nervous system
He was elected a Fellow of The Royal Society in 1882 and in 1889 he won the Royal Medal for his research and in 1908 he wrote "The Origin of the Vertebrates"
Gaskell died at Uplands in 1914

*Uplands*





















The house would have once had beautiful arches





and huge fire places

























*The Future*

Planning permission has been granted to demolish Uplands and build a 99 room 5 star hotel complete with 18 hole golf course.

These artists and architects drawings are taken from the planning permission














​


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## UEP-Wales (Apr 27, 2012)

Nice work Nelly! Looks like it was once a grand place


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## tank2020 (Apr 27, 2012)

Proper Broken, like it. You always manage to find a good bit of history about places!


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## nelly (Apr 27, 2012)

tank2020 said:


> Proper Broken, like it. You always manage to find a good bit of history about places!



Cheers fella, that one was tricky, took me a fair while but Google is your friend


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## SeffyboyUK (Apr 28, 2012)

Nicely done Nelly, like it


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## sparky. (Apr 28, 2012)

very nice mate love it


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## King Al (Apr 28, 2012)

How is this place still upright!?! Great report as always Nelly!


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## skeleton key (Apr 28, 2012)

Cracking stuff nelly no mention of dogs here lol dont you dare 

SK


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## Priority 7 (Apr 28, 2012)

Did someone say tunnels SK


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## Ninja Kitten (Apr 28, 2012)

i love the rurex stuff best so for me this is a lovely report..great pics too.


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## Simon (Apr 28, 2012)

I'm amazed this place is still standing.

All the best,
Simon


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## nelly (Apr 28, 2012)

skeleton key said:


> Cracking stuff nelly no mention of dogs here lol dont you dare
> 
> SK



Nah, best leave it. Not your finest moment mate


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## nelly (Apr 28, 2012)

skeleton key said:


> Cracking stuff nelly no mention of dogs here lol don't you dare
> 
> SK






nelly said:


> Nah, best leave it. Not your finest moment mate



Well, unless anybody specifically asks of course!!


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## UrbanX (Apr 28, 2012)

Stop barking on. He was onto a lead there.


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## flyboys90 (Apr 28, 2012)

Must have been a cracking place in its day,looks like the water tank is hanging on to the bitter end!great report as allways thanks for sharing.


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## Maddie220790 (May 3, 2012)

Beautiful photos! Would've been great to see the place before! Very interesting story too!


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## inceptionwave (May 8, 2012)

Wow, what a fascinating place, a shame it is going to be demolished in place for a hotel! Thankyou for the report, loved it!


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## Sshhhh... (May 10, 2012)

Nice chimneys


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## MoonCat (May 13, 2012)

Wow! That Mr. Ratte must have been a proper lunatic to destroy a place like that!


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## steve2109 (Jun 3, 2012)

Do you know if demolition has started yet?.. might pop down tomorrow for a look as its not far from me and is on the way (sort of) to another destination....


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## skeleton key (Jun 3, 2012)

It's still there Steve


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## Bambii (Jun 3, 2012)

This must once have really been something as even now it's still pretty impressive! I particularly love these places where nature is slowly starting to reassert it's claim on the land 
Nice pics!


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## glass (Jun 3, 2012)

Did the guy murder his wife and teenage daughter too or have I got the wrong place?'


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## UrbanX (Jun 3, 2012)

glass said:


> Did the guy murder his wife and teenage daughter too or have I got the wrong place?'



Wrong place, looks really similar but think the other one is up t'north. Well spotted tho sir!


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## TeeJF (Jun 3, 2012)

How did you get on with the new tripod Nell? I bought the same one and it's taken me until tonight to work out how you got it low to the floor!


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## nelly (Jun 5, 2012)

Lol, mate there must be a PDF instruction manual online, you brought the 055XPROB???


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## UEP-Wales (Jun 5, 2012)

nelly said:


> Lol, mate there must be a PDF instruction manual online, you brought the 055XPROB???



Instruction Manual


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## skeleton key (Jun 5, 2012)

You should throw that link up Nelly as very use full to owners and servicing and makes a world of difference in operation

Ahh spoke too late lol


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## TeeJF (Jun 8, 2012)

nelly said:


> Lol, mate there must be a PDF instruction manual online, you brought the 055XPROB???



Yeah I did get that model with the trigger grip panning head. Used it in anger last weekend. It's nice but a tad heavy.


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## nelly (Jun 8, 2012)

It weighs a freaking ton fella


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## TeeJF (Jun 9, 2012)

Amen to that, but that's pretty awesome if you need a battering ram or a dog dissuader! On a salutary note I also bought a new Canon Sppedlite flash but the bl**dy thing falls off the top of my camera at the drop of a hat. It almost went down 3 floors at St. davids Hotel but luckily it fell onto the beams. I was not impressed.


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## Jumpin' Jax (Jun 9, 2012)

glass said:


> Did the guy murder his wife and teenage daughter too or have I got the wrong place?'



I think that was Maesbrook in Shropshire in '08...he too blocked the driveway to hinder emergency services...what's wrong with folk??


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## prettyvacant71 (Jun 16, 2012)

Sum great shots of the place...i bet u held your breath taking that shot lookin up at that cooker or watever it is, balancing in the branches


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