Fallen Soldiers House - (Unfallen)

So, this place is probably completely trashed and ruined now. Luckily we got to see it a couple of weeks before it got its new 'residents'. Visited with UE-OMJ & LadyPandora

Anyway, this one goes by the name of “The House of The Fallen Soldier”
No idea why, it seem to belong to a Marine biologist / shipping manager that was entirely a civilian firm.



What was obvious tho is the love he had for his family. There were photos of them everywhere. Not in a creepy way, but a loving way. I spend my weekends doing this, but I was deeply saddened to see these mashed into the damp mossy floor downstairs. I don’t like moving things in the sites I visit, but on this occasion I felt compelled to move as many as I could to a dryer bit of the house. An over optimistic gesture, but I’m hoping these memories can be spared a little more time, even if only to be commited to the memories of other future explorers.

His two daughters:
I cant imagine ever seeing a photo of my offspring in this condition, even after I’m gone.


It’s odd to see them growing up as you sift through the house:






Mother or grandmother?


An old photo of some people on a camel…


“Rescued” photos:


As I was pouring over the old photos LadyPandora was reading some hand written letters. She noticed that they were from two separate women, even though they were dated around the same era, lol!



I looked round the rest of the house, and there’s jackets hanging up, crockery filling the cupboards, but still I felt compelled to ignore these and find more photos to pour over.




His career was his second love:






Thanks for reading.

That's a lot of personal details you've posted there... =/

Interesting stuff. Makes me think about what'll happen to all my nick nacks when I'm gone. Everything will be forgotten and returned to the earth eventually I suppose. Thanks for posting!

Hope its been left alone, such a sad thing to see all the family's memory's just left to disappear - thank you

That's lovely Mr x..I really enjoyed this place

I really like the way you have written the description of the house (and photos of course), it is so important to show respect for property regardless of condition. A post which shows this forum in the best possible light.

There is enough information here and in other published reports on the internet to fully piece together the full story of this very sad collection of family detritus. This house sends a clear and telling message - treasure the time with your family and friends; because one never knows what is around the corner and photographs and objects make a very poor substitute for human companionship.

This and the house of dolls always make me wonder what happened, seams as something sad has happened for them to leave so much personal stuff around the house.
Real shame the place looks like its been trashed now

byker59 said:

Hope its been left alone, such a sad thing to see all the family's memory's just left to disappear - thank you

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Not a chance, the land around the house was invaded by a whole troupe of our favourite traveller friends a couple of weeks ago. It's probably been used as their toilet now. Which saddens me.

But I also agree with Krela in part.....maybe a bit too much un-censored personal info shown here.

:/

Nice detailed report UrbanX! Nice one saving the photos

Very heartfelt report, thanks Urb

Very interesting and very different.Thanks for sharing.

mookster said:

I also agree with Krela in part.....maybe a bit too much un-censored personal info shown here.:/

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To me showing 'uncensored' personal stuff does not matter - if circumstances dictate we leave behind a mountain of memories, we cannot then expect to control what happens to them in the future. Prior to getting married in '79, I had moved back into my old family home, 1/ because work had brought me back to the town of my birth and 2/, my widowed mother required help. My wife and I lived in the house until '82 - getting Mum into sheltered accommodation and getting the place sold. A friend of the family next door purchased the house along with the 'unwanted' contents - your cannot move the contents of a three floored Victorian house into a modern three bed detached - somethings have to go, or be left. In '85 a complete stranger turned up at my place of work and handed me 2 reels of 16mm film - in 1964 a group of us had gone out to the Atlas Mountains in an ex army truck and I filmed it all. He had found the reels in a junk shop just around the corner from the old family house and had traced me after finding my name on the copyright statement at the end of the film, I had of course left them in the attic as part of the unwanted junk - they now sit above me in the loft of our present cottage, awaiting their next revealing by whoever finds them!

What does jar with me is when people add their own comments or thoughts as 'titles' to the images. Obviously your report, can say what you want - but do we have a right to speculate about events we really know nothing about in a persons private life. Just because we find a place abandoned, it does not mean that there are no living relatives around, You people are renowned for respecting their personal effects, perhaps the same care should be given to personal lives?

It's a fair point Dirus, but the flipside is the family members who then see their loved one's details and private memories, sometimes some of their own details, and maybe even family secrets, spread on the internet and get very upset about it. I have had a number of very angry and upset emails from such people over the years. So yes, personally I do think there's also a point to be made about care for the still living too, one that goes beyond not interpreting or speculating.

As I said to UrbanX when we discussed it via PM, there's not really any definite right or wrong, and there's good arguments on both sides, so I leave it up to whoever is posting to decide. That said I will always ask the question; in whose interests does exposing the details lie, and what damage might it do? Particularly in cases as recent as this when things seem to be firmly within living memory.

I understand that in some cases there are no loved ones or even no-one who cares at all, which is why some properties get in this state, but that's not really the point.

Cheers for the positive comments guys!
Blimey that's a long reply Dirus!

TBH I did think for a long time about putting up some of the photos showing 'personal' info: I thought about blurring certain details, but by the very nature of this report that'd be pretty much every photo! I wondered whether to keep the photos to myself, just a few bytes of data on my own hard drive, never to be seen by anyone else ever again...

In the end I weighed it up, and considering the house is now being used as a toilet / somewhere to dump & burn waste, I thought it better that these memories were shared, even if only to those curious enough to read a UE report.

Ultimately, we all document a lot more 'intimate' details of peoples lives: photograph collections, letters, pension books, clothing etc. on here. To show a certificate or a work card to say that a marine surveyor studied marine surveying, then worked at a marine company doesn't seem that outlandish.

Hopefully this has documented (in whatever small way) somewhere that the general populous never get to see, and never will have a chance to again.

You captured this perfectly and a great report

That is a really moving report UrbanX. Thank you for that.

Interesting report, my personal option about photos or information left behind is who ever owns it simply not bothered or they would have returned to collect it. From an urbex point of view it help tells the story of that abandoned house only problem that could arise is someone went their with intent to use any information for criminal gain.

ironsky said:

Interesting report, my personal option about photos or information left behind is who ever owns it simply not bothered or they would have returned to collect it. From an urbex point of view it help tells the story of that abandoned house only problem that could arise is someone went their with intent to use any information for criminal gain.

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That's only half true though isn't it, only one or a small handful of people may be responsible for what happens to the stuff, but the stuff itself could relate to a hundred people who have no say in the matter and who might be very bothered to find things relating to them published on the internet. Plus it's not like it's fair game. We use a very dubious legal loophole to access this stuff in the first place. Even if people don't care about taking ownership of it that doesn't mean they're okay with it being fair game for any nosey person.

It's all good, I'm just saying that just because something is "abandoned" doesn't mean no-one cares or won't be hurt by it, and it might be worth considering that when posting up personal stuff.

I tend to avoid exploring houses like this primarily because they make me feel uncomfortable - forever in the back of my mind is the knowledge that I am rooting through someone's personal stuff. Objects and possessions at one point dear to them, which photographers like to set up in sometimes ridiculous and laughable ways just to get a shot. There are only a handful of these kind of places out there I would seriously consider photographing myself (Cloud Cottage was one), but that's just me and my personal preferences. In this hobby everyone has them, everyone likes to explore different kinds of places for different reasons. I'd much rather have a large decaying factory than a small house

I have explored a few 'time capsule' houses in the past, both in this country and abroad and my feelings have never changed.

Bottom line is though it comes down to explore what the hell you want and get out of it what you want.