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Matriarch House, Urbex, Abandoned, Derelict
Matriarch House, Shropshire

A recent find after some google earth scanning with a friend, this house had all the things which make houses such amazing locations to photograph. Unlike other types of sites, houses are personal. They have remnants of lives, personal posessions left behind which allows an insight into the people who once lived there. When letters are found along with photographs and personal documents one can really get a glimpse of those who have now gone.

 

This house had the lot. Victorian photo albums, faces on every page, people from the past, years and years of history in this tiny micro world. A dusty old woodedn box found on top of a cupboard, once opened revealed dozens of phoographic envelopes crammed full of old black and white photos, snap shots of lives, faces related to the house, the family. Other official documents such as a ration book, clothes ration book and identity card create that feeling of nostalgia. A WW1 tin hat, nazi books and cards hint at connections to the World Wars. 

 

Houses with decay are so photogenic when surrounded by persoanl artefacts. The frozen and the transient, their juxtaposition a contradiction yet an inevitability of time.

 

The decay would suggest the house has been empty of people for quite some time although an exact year the door closed for the last time can't be ascertained from what's left behind. What can be noted though is that the house was once full of ordinary lives, people doing the ordinary then all of a sudden it finished. The house remained as was.

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