For those of you who haven't read my Toy Cottage report, this is why I asked the question in the first place
The Toy Cottage as it as been named by Mikeymutt, I'd like to name it something else after my visit! Haha
I visited The Toy Cottage with Vertigo Rod and what a visit it was!
Thing is with visiting these rural sites especially this one, its so rural that wherever you park your car unless you park miles and miles away the locals are going to know your from out of town, and if you park it within walking distance to a abandon cottage then theres a good chance they are going to know where you are.
Anyway we done a bit of research before we went and we was also told that people had been caught the week before by the farmer and the farmer went mental! taking all this on board we still decide to take a look, we park the car just down the lane and decide to take a bit of a walk as we didn't want to park directly outside and draw any attention to our selfs, we climb over the gate and start walking towards the cottage and has we are about 100 yards away a car drives passed and see us walking towards the cottage, they didn't stop or say anything but they must of been locals as there was only another three farms near by, we get to the cottage and we can see the two entrances to the cottage have been nailed shut and wire holding them closed, but just the the side of one of the doors was a small window, no frame no glass no nothing, so we climbed in and put a piece of wood over the window so it wouldn't look like anyone was in there, there was a small hall way, to the left a kitchen which was pretty rammed with stuff and was a right mess and to the right was a small sitting room.
We started taking a few photos but for some resin my self of Rod just didn't feel at ease in there, one of the resins was if anyone walked past the window we would be easily seen, and just outside the cottage you could see fresh tyre tracks from a landrover and hay in the fields for the sheep so the land was being used even though the house wasn't.
After taking a few pics down stairs we then made our way upstairs, I went in one room and rod went in the other as there wasn't much room for the two of us to be in the same room, we took a few pics then swaped rooms and for some resin I still didn't feel at ease, even upstairs it was quite a hairy feeling and with the rooms benign so small it would still be quite easy to spotted from outside in the field, anyway Im snapping away and I can hear a bang, so I stood in silence for a bit, I can still hear Rod snapping away so thought it can't be him, I quietly walked over to the room Rod was in and I said did you hear that bang and he said yeah it was me, I just hit a load of books of the shelf with my backpack, I fooking **** haha, I then returned back to the other bedroom to take a few more shots and Rod walks in with a worried look on his face, whispering the farmer is just outside and he's looking around the house, we stood back from the windows so we couldn't be seen, I can then see a landrover drive down the field and park facing towards the house with the woman farming looking towards the house.
We can there here the to farmers talking to each other, and then he shouts up what I thought he said was Mark are you in there? it literally sounded like he was at the bottom of the stairs! we then moved towards the bedroom door trying to be as quite as posable and as we moved I stood on a toy car or something making quite a loud bang, I couldn't fooking believe it!!!
The farmer then shouldn't right I know your in there you better come out! we just stood there in silence I could hear my heart beating, it was 100mph I could feel it beating in my throat!
He then shouted to his wife, Margret there fooking upstairs, they then started talking Welsh, I didn't have a clue what they were saying but lucky enough Rod also speaks Welsh, I said to Rod what are they saying and he said they are going to send in the dogs! So I shouted down to him, hello who is it? and he shouted back never fooking mind who is it, what are you fooking doing? and you betting get out of my fooking house, so I shouted down we'er just taking a few photos, I didn't relies it belonged to anyone, we just thought it was abandoned.
So we walks down stairs expecting to see the farmer at the bottom of the stairs but to our surprise he was out side shouting in through the window that we had climbed in through, I said sorry buddy we just thought it was abandoned and thought we'd come in and take some photos, we haven't done any damage and we didn't mean to cause you any harm, he then put the board back over the window and said you can explain your selfs to the police, his wife was shouting all sorts of abuse and was going mental, I was more worried about her then the police.
His wife then drive off and I said to the farmer, look there's no need to call the police and he said Ive got to call them because Ive been told by the police I'm not to hit you and just lock you in and call them, we was locked in for quite some time and in this time I was trying to resin with him, asking him general question about farming and hows the weather been etc, he was quite calm at this point, I then asked him how had the house become abbanded and he said there was a death in the family 8 years ago and they couldn't afford the up keep, he wasn't that bothered about us being in there but he said his wife goes mental, I think he was afraid of her and I don't blame him, a few time I ask him to let us out and we wouldn't run off and we'd wait for the police but as soon as I mentioned being us out he'd go nuts and say Ive got a bottle in my had and I'm not afraid to use it.
About 20 mins had gone by and I had quite a lot going though my head, I was thinking all sorts of things, like what if his wife as gone to get a gun, what if she comes back with a load of people and all sorts going though my mind, I also thought what if the police get us to delete all our pics, i know they can't make you do that but jut to keep on there good side I was prepared to do that, so I then swapped my memory card for another and started to take a few more shots of the house while waiting for the police, ad this point I can then hear a police radio, I was feeling quite relieved at this point and for the first time ever glad to see them haha
The police then took the board off the window and said alright lads whats going on? I just said we had seen the abounded cottage and decided to take a few photos, he said come on out and we'll have a chat, I started climbing out of the window and the officer helped me down, the woman farmer went mental because of this, he then took us to one side away from the farmers and just asked what was going on, I just said we like to document old abandoned buildings, we was pretty understanding, his colleague however didn't believe us for one minute, he said I don't care what you say I don't believe you and you wont change my mind, they then checked our stuff and asked us to delete all the photos, I didn't mind doing that because I had backups on another card, Rod however didn't and was gutted! they then done the relevant checks on us and sent of on our way with some kind words of advise.
Sorry if I want on a bit but it was our first time being caught and the whole experience was something else
One more thing, that farmer telling me that the house was empty because of a death in the family had me thinking, who died? the mother the father or one of the children ? if it was the mam or dad or even both and the children had to go and live with a family member or something I just question why would all the kids stuff still be left behind in the cottage, surly they would of taking there belongings with them? could it of been one of children who had died and the parents couldn't live there anymore because of the memories? also I think its been empty longer then 8 years the last dates on the calendar and school books are 1988
