Several years ago, I mentioned to my husband that I thought the big log store was starting to tilt. He took a look and assured me that I was mistaken, all was perfectly as it should be.
To be fair, the winter storms have done some extra damage, and as you can see, that particular store has now become nothing more than a dumping ground for rat traps, pickaxes, tools, tubs and anything which doesn't have an official home. It is now a wreck and he has had to admit that yes, it is tilting!
Never mind, it is set to become a project for Grandpa and grandson to work on during the summer. That should be fun and a good test of their relationship.
A little further into the village, although just across a couple of hedges if you go the field way, was this cottage. It had been empty for several decades while there were discussions about what to do with it...
It had a huge garden at the front, and it looks as though there used to be an archway through the middle of the cottage(s). It had some charm about it, but it was in a dreadful state.
Another building gone. Demolished and a new build in there.
Typing this, my eye keeps getting drawn to the enormous chimney stack on the cottage. In all the years I walked past it I hadn't noticed how out of proportion it is to the size of the cottage.
All these little changes, old buildings gone and something rather less charming built in their place. Change happens, even in a tiny village.
I need to remember that chimney, keep it in proportion!
It is sad when something old is replaced with something hideous, as so often happens where we live.
ReplyDeleteIt does so often seem to be that way, jabblog. Unfortunately!
DeleteI hate to see change for the sake of change. The last time I drove past our old house, I was absolutely horrified to find that Drax Power Station had talked lots of local farmers into felling their biggest trees to go into their capacious furnaces. Some of those trees were absolute icons in the landscape, which looked ravaged without them. It's the same when houses get ripped down - and something modern replacing them, which sticks out like a sore thumb in the landscape - not apart of it as the former building was.
ReplyDeleteNo! Awful, verging on the criminal, BB. They do say it is not wise to go back. I can only imagine your horror. This little village has had one very large and very modern house built where once there was just a meadow. How it got through planning, I hate to think. If the idea was to totally stand out like the proverbial sore thumb, well that was definitely achieved. I like the couple who built it, but I shake my head in despair every time I walk up through that field.
DeleteYes, this is happening more and more, probably because maintaining old buildings is expensive and time-consuming! So the easy solution is to tear it down.
ReplyDeleteCertainly, however, the local self-government should make sure that some buildings are maintained, so that the place keeps its character.
Have a good night!
Yes, all too often the real character of a place is eradicated in the name of progress, Katerina. It happens all too often.
DeleteThis little village has never been beautiful, but it does have a few (a very few!) interesting buildings which speak of the past. Slowly they are being modernised and the character is lost.
Still, it is what it is. You have a good night, too.
Your photographs could easily have been taken in Norfolk. I looked at a house like the one above before I bought the one I am in. It needed too much work for me but fortunately it was restored by someone else and is still standing. I still love it and am sorry that I could not take on the work myself or have someone to do it with.
ReplyDeleteHello Rachel, I'm glad the house you liked is still standing - the trouble is these projects really can drain both money and energy. If memory serves me right, the house you bought is very beautiful and extremely old and characterful. There is nothing at all like that in this village, alas!
DeleteWhat a shame. It is so sad to see these lovely old buildings falling into disrepair and then being demolished.
ReplyDeleteI know that it is sometimes down to disputes over wills, arguments within families where one side wants to sell and another to keep in the family. That these things rumble on for decades shouldn't really surprise me, but it does!
DeleteAt least the log store isn't a beloved old building. Grandpa and the boy will have a good time replacing it.
ReplyDeleteNo, that log store was built almost 20 years ago, by my son and a friend of his. They did a good enough job for two young men eager to fund their social lives! I think that Grandpa and the young boy in the header will make a great team, once they get cracking. The bread oven needs to be completed first.
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