Urban Exploration: Workhouse Farm

We are Urban Explorers, we are not vandals. We take nothing besides photographs and leave nothing but footprints.

For my Urban Exploration adventures, I have been scavenging information from the internet but also keeping my beady eyes open for things of interest while I drive about.

When you make your own ‘find' it gets a little more interesting. I can't credit this one to myself, but my good lady @bingbabe who pointed at the roof of a passing building with the explanation, "Look at the holes in the roof".

Urbex Tip 1: Holes in the roof of a building means that nobody lives there anymore, so it’s derelict, so it’s a target.

We drove past the building on that particular day due to lack of time but I earmarked it for future investigation.

Urbex Tip 2: So it’s empty, but is it worth looking at?

If it’s a worn out husk, it may not be worthy of having a look. I checked Google Maps and could plainly see the holes in the roof from the map.

If only Maps had a ‘Show all properties with Holey Roofs’ filter, it would make things so much easier.

Source

Some research educated me that this building has been Grade II listed since 1985 and is named Workhouse Farm. It has been empty for at least 16 years and looking at the state of it probably a lot more years than that!

I tried to find information regarding if it was for sale but came up with nothing. There was an application around 2002 for planning permission to demolish it and create a services area that was rejected.

The barn that is attached to the farmhouse was used a workhouse in the 19th century. I did find this titbit of information. The building originates from around 1850.

Victorian Workhouses’ were where the poorest people lived and had to essentially work like slaves just to survive. Check the link for further information.

My first attempt at accessing Workhouse Farm failed due to me thinking someone else was in the building. A red mini was parked up right outside essentially telling me, ‘Hey… I’m in here’.

My second attempt proved fruitful though I had to time my entrance. The house sits next to a very busy junction with bored motorists waiting at traffic lights watching what you are doing.

Access was laughably easy, and once in all the shrubbery and trees protects you from the motorists and their wandering thoughts.

The place was an absolute wreck. I mean worse than Extwistle Hall and that was bad. Collapsed ceilings made an upstairs visit quite impossible.

I had to walk to the back of the house to get a full impression of it. Looking through some of the windows showed me the state of the place,

Some of the downstairs windows and doors had been bricked up. That can make light inside the property troublesome.

You need to be able to see for your photographs and to stop yourself from getting injured. Not a problem here as the roof was mostly gone.

On the other side of the building, I had to scramble over some trees just to get to where I took the cover photograph.

This was the entrance for me, but this barbed wire looked quite new and I did believe the sign that said, ‘Danger’.

Part of the barbed wire had been ripped down by someone else and it was easy to scramble under it at one point. I then had all these fallen beams to get past.

The small gap looks like an escape route or something. It was too small for me to crawl through.

This is the barn where the workhouse used to be I presume. There was a door at the far end but on the next level up. Trees and nature were taking over in a big way and I had to check my footing.

The door was accessible again by means of a board placed by someone. I didn’t fancy my chances up there and declined to see what was beyond. Maybe this was the overseer's office?

Some parts of the extension were simply inaccessible with the amount of debris, fallen bits of roof and junk in the way.

The door once had an elaborate design, the handle is now so rusted that is doesn’t move anymore.

I think this was a sliding door once, you can see the pulley system amidst the fallen beams.

The house was devoid of atmosphere. Maybe it was just too far gone. Scrambling around inside did not feel dangerous to me. At no point did I think it would all collapse on top of me.

Urbex Tip 3: Touch as little as possible unless you want it all to fall on you and you to cease living.

The light switch was one of the only things I saw that linked the house to modern times. Just how long has it been empty?

I had to circle the house when I had finished and noticed that part of it still had some roof left. There were two windows with no trace of glass that I could scramble through and have a look.

Only one of them revealed any sign that this place could still be used as a shelter. I spotted a closed door that might have led into a cellar; I didn't open it remembering, Urbex Tip 3.

The other direction just led me into the area that was open with collapsed beams again.

There was nothing of interest in terms of possessions left by previous occupants and I found no evidence of vandalism.

With a place that you find yourself, you can be sure that it's not a well-trodden path for others but it can also be disappointing.

Workhouse Farm has some history behind it, and for that reason, I went to investigate.

There are many derelict buildings dotted about the country if you care to look. It's finding the good ones that are the challenge.