Found by chance on the drive home after a look around Blackburn RI, a large house standing just off the main road. A quick look around the exterior and it was obviously in an advanced state of decay with the roof looking particularly parlous after - it turns out - a fire the previous year. A look through the windows however I could see a grand fireplace and some bits and pieces left behind after the last occupant had moved out. 

Three visits in total during the cold January months of 2013 as the first shoot was rubbish and the second unsatisfactory due to a constant foreign light entering the lens in the vicars bedroom, I wondered if it was some kind of apparition as it was only happening in that room.  

The staircase was still in good condition made of solid wood with a lovely stained glass window at the top on the landing albeit damaged by flying stones from outside. 

This was a beautiful house, majestic in stature and such a shame it was to end up in such a terrible state. 

Only a small amount of history could be traced about this house. St John the Vianney RC Church presbytery was  occupied by a Mrs J Cook in the 1930'. The family name was Kuhlke (a German name) but in the first war some family members changed it to Cook because of feelings about German sounding names.

Beyond this, information is hard to obtain as to the rest of its history and reason for closure and laying abandoned all these years. A planning application turned down in Oct 2008 to build a residential home on the site was rejected as it would have meant felling precious ash and sycamore trees. In September 2012 a large fire damaged a large part of the upper rear section of the house. The house was finally demolished in the Spring of 2013 yet another magnificent house vanished form the landscape.