Tales of the Urban Explorer: Paraffin Cottage
"Just look at that..., it kind of looks like The Llama House”
While not exactly of the same style, I was wondering if a certain Welsh building company had built a job lot of these things sometime in the 1930s.
The date is just a guess and based on other things I found in “Paraffin Cottage”. As by standards set aside by the ‘Official Urban Explorers of the UK’, I had to give the house a ridiculous name to stop the many wankers from finding it.
The Llama House it may have resembled but I didn’t like what I could see from this outside of the gate. It looked suspiciously like a skip full of items that should be inside the house.
Things could be worse, there could be another BuilderDude hanging around, stripping the place bare, erecting his cabin, poncing about pretending to work, and drinking lots of tea.
Climbing over the gate and well aware of the nearby neighbours we scuttled past the skip and up to the front door; it was locked.
The back door was a different story, wide open and blowing around. Can’t people close the fucking door when they leave?
It was evident by now that the house contents were mostly in that skip. We would check it on departure.
The wallpaper was peeling in copious amounts and that familiar stench of dampness and neglect entered my nostrils.
All was not lost and some items had been spared. The books were all in Welsh and totally incomprehensibly to me, bar the Welsh towns I recognise the names of.
A few nails and this could be brought back into everyday service.
Yardley Lace is not cheap shit, quite vintage, and goes for £60 a bottle. It also goes bad after hanging around for several decades.
These were looking interesting. ‘Ministry of Food' leaflets were produced during the World War II years. Food was scarce then and tomatoes were to be cherished and not wasted.
It always gives me a thrill to see literature such as this, produced well before I was born just lying around. “Paraffin Cottage” must have existed when the Germans were bombing London, circa 1940.
Puddings without Eggs don't sound particularly tasty. Look at the artwork!
It might have looked nice out there, but it was cold. Inside was colder.
I can’t remember taking this picture, never mind figuring out what it is.
The removal people didn’t look behind the doors and missed a few things.
The book on the right set me back in shock. Was it… ‘The Book of the Dead’ from the Evil Dead? It looked truly evil and could I see an evil face on the cover?
Tentatively I picked it up fully expecting an unearthly voice to rasp out in a dreadful voice…, 'you are disturbing our eternal sleep’ followed by… ‘you will never leave here alive’.
...'finding the Book of the Dead could have been life-changing, or life-ending depending on your perspective of life'...
Source
I opened the book with trembling fingers, fully expecting it to crumble into dust, or better come alive in my very hands…
Is that it… an old bloody dictionary? We could have used some action, after all this Time Capsule was in the process of ‘going off', and by the time I write this, well and truly gone.
Passing the many boxes of Quality Street full of rotting chocolates we made for the open door intending to close it tight.
Glancing to the right, I spotted the Mini-Mastermind which immediately took me back to childhood.
I hated that fucking show, with Magnus Magnuson hosting it and the game was equally terrible. I played it once at a friend's house.
'A Game of Cunning and Logic?', more like a 'Game of Boring your Tits off'.
On the opposite side of the cottage, we spotted a shed that yielded some additional goodies.
The dates of these receipts are from 1940, Jones is an especially common name in Wales, just think ‘Tom’ and someone was buying lots of Paraffin.
Hugh Jones sold a lot of Paraffin to the owner and was much more than a fuel dealer. Look at the advertisement for 'Gold Crown Tea Tips' on his receipts.
I love this kind of stuff. I would ‘start the day well with a cup of good tea’ if only Tea Tips were still about. I tried and failed to find them on the internet.
If you can decipher the address on that receipt from 1940, then congratulations, you have found yourself a Time Capsule. I find a lot of writing from this period, quite illegible.
...not that there will be anything left by now...
Leaving the shed, we passed a lovely bottle of fresh milk. Taking a swig was ever so tempting, but like a ‘Good Samaritan’ I offered it to my colleague, @anidiotexplores who seemed less than impressed. He’s a fussy arse.
I felt some sympathy for the TV. It might have worked before it was evicted. The Welsh rain would have put an end to its short life.
The contents of the skip appeared to be mostly large goods. I wasn’t going to rummage through bin bags, which could have contained scabby, maggot-dripping, rotting chicken legs or worse.
“Paraffin Cottage” is on its last legs, as far as exploring goes. I had this sickening feeling that we were going to see these types of sights again on this very day.
My diagnosis would prove to be correct.
Do you like posting your Urbex content and photography for FREE on Facebook and YouTube? I like to get some form of reward for my work and every time I create I do just that. Take a look at The Urbex Community on HIVE.
If you want to keep creating for FREE then ignore what you are reading. If you want to be like me and gain something other than BUGGER ALL for your work then click here and learn about posting on the HIVE blockchain.
If you found this article so invigorating that you are now a positively googly-eyed, drooling lunatic with dripping saliva or even if you liked it just a bit, then please upvote, comment, rehive, engage me or all of these things.
https://twitter.com/50994051/status/1580477950037983232
https://twitter.com/904656441772007424/status/1580503059389894656
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the people( @slobberchops, @joydukeson ) sharing the post on Twitter as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com.
Your content has been voted as a part of Encouragement program. Keep up the good work!
Use Ecency daily to boost your growth on platform!
Support Ecency
Vote for new Proposal
Delegate HP and earn more
Oh my god, look at that wasted chocolate!
(teardrop)
Did you dare to smell the perfume bottle?
Off topic, I'm curious how long have you been doing urban exploration?
I could have mailed you some, if I had known :)
I didn't open the Yardley, you learn not to do such things.
Since 2018, when I stepped into an abandoned nightclub, something changed within me that day..
Yeah I could sit in front of them, sobbing and PMSing.
That's a long time passion , wish I have such a opportunity here, but would be arrested ASAP. 😂
Congratulations, your post has been added to Pinmapple! 🎉🥳🍍
Did you know you have your own profile map?
And every post has their own map too!
Want to have your post on the map too?
This is really amazing. I see the 1940 writing is still very good. maybe these records were kept very neatly during world war II took place.
The receipts were semi-exposed and could have been pulled out by someone else. I doubt they will last long where they are. These are the finds that do it for me, the old stuff, especially this well preserved.
I think the receipt is well preserved and it is a proof that they lived at that time.
i laughed at this, what if it really came alive? just thinking
...then I could have made this a better story than it is 😀
hahahhaha, m sure you could have had shaky hands typing.😆
Had me shitting myself at a bloody dictionary. 😳
Did I say that I like these old-abandoned-places-posts? Probably a million times... 😃
This was an interesting "excursion"... Luckily, you didn't die opening that book (dictionary) of death... 😃
I have picked this post on behalf of the @OurPick project which will be highlighted in the next post!
The old stuff made up for the initial disappointment. They had not quite thrown out all of it.
That fresh milk is probably lying old cheese now lol.
Some cool finds in there. The old plum pudding recipe could come in handy and the dictionary. Always need one of those. Probably for thr best that is wasn't the book of the dead.
It was better than expected, that day was a real mixed bag.
Variety is the spice of life, as they say
Oy, that does sound pretty nasty. I suppose eggs were at a premium in WWII, though, and rationed pretty tightly.
My son would love that tube tv in one of the last pictures. He's a nerd.
I see these everywhere, most of them probably work.
My son collects old video game consoles (Sega, Nintendo, etc), the same way I collect phonographs and 78rpm records. He claims that two of them will "look" better on a tube tv than a flatscreen, since that is what they were made for. I don't doubt him but.. damn. I don't need a tube tv in my house.
To be fair, do Welsh people even understand Welsh? I only remember that one weather caster than nailed the name of that town. It was all over Youtube for a while. I think that was Welsh. I recently joined a Facebook group called "old, abandoned, and interesting places in Michigan" or something like that. You would laugh at some of the stuff on there. There was this huge discussion the other day about trespassing and all of the consequences. I wanted to pipe in and point out there are virtually none in the UK, but I am happy just lurking at this point.
Oh yeah they do.. and are fiercely proud of it. The English don't have a clue what they are saying either.
That's too funny. I guess I don't understand what people from the south say sometimes either!
I had to understand them when I was doing hotline support in 1994 (AZ). The Fingerhut customers all originated from the south.
Hilarious, witty and as always with excellent photos.... Also how amazing is the amount of things that can remain in abandoned places!.... Each thing, a story... A round of applause and thanks for sharing...
!PIZZA
Thanks, I try and make them entertaining.
What have I told you about leaving bottles of Yardley filled with piss in derelict building in the hope some poor unsuspecting soul fancies a spruce up. 🙈
It could well have been piss, I should have opened it.. and had a pull.
PIZZA Holders sent $PIZZA tips in this post's comments:
@jlinaresp(2/10) tipped @slobberchops (x1)
Learn more at https://hive.pizza.
This left me with quite a sad feeling to be honest. Do you ever feel that way about Time Capsules when they finally leave the UrBex catalogue? I suppose in a really ironic way, they live on in the blockchain even though they're actually gone.
Love your write ups. By the way, I hated mastermind too although I was really good at the game.
Not so long as I have already done them. It may get refurbished and lived in again, hopefully its not flattened.
That makes sense. At least they get memorialized this way and it's actually cool that part of their history will be there in the chain forever if anyone is looking later down the line.
Another good shots, abandoned things speak volumes, some things in the house were scary
I think there would have been more harm with the milk than the book of death there. :) I never got lucky enough to see one of those when I was a kid. Plum pudding? I love those old recipes found. I actually did find some like that and recipes from new products introduced on the market in the 1930s and 40s. I kept them and sold the houses. I like the recipes from days of yore. I am fascinated by them but never knew what to do with them except keep them. I bought an old house with a barn and it had the coolest stuff in there. This was over 20 years ago, but, if I had been reading you and found it, I would be doing explores here now.
This one was pretty cool with what it had left behind. I was looking at the robes and they seemed pretty clean and not in bad shape. Perhaps the people doing the tearing down are showering there? LOL Pudding without eggs? I'd rather take my chances on the chocolate. I have lots of kid readers that I found in that house. I find them so cool. Also found the American Dick and Jane readers. That was so cool!
This was fun and you really made out well on this exploration.
This was in the back of beyond, barely anyone know about it (hopefully). So no graffiti, spray paint, broken windows etc.., these types are very rare.
Stuff from the war years always interest me. I used to hassle my late Grandma about tales from WW2. She told me some stuff.
Me too! My grandfather gave me his old ration card and his dd214 (to resign his commission) and as he was in the Navy, they always had second jobs to keep busy on the ships. So guess what he did? He helped the photographer, so I have some shots of the ships shooting at each other and the beaches of Iwo Jima.
They never talked about the war - hardly ever, except to say they were in it. Everyone was. A different world then.
Some nice vintage items there. That's proper history. We found some stuff dating back to the war in our old cottage as we cleared it out. In 50 years people will excited by finding old iPhones in abandoned houses.
I'm finding phones already, those cheap nasty things from the noughties.., they probably don't work, but I don't try switching them on.
Archaeologists of the future will find a layer of these. I think they had a better battery life than modern smartphones.
just speechless.. Love to read it.
You just called out to my rebel heart, haha, checking out abandoned houses is one of my favorite things! Especially if I have to sneak in!
I always find old books and papers, newspapers- which I love, there's something about reading what was happening on a specific day decades ago that is just fantastic!
Tales of the Urban Explorer..I am so in!
That's part of it, permission visits are boring, I have only experienced one.., when we got caught and then he let us in anyway. The thrill is not there.
An eBay thief could make a fortune from this house :). Some of those vintage books can fetch some good money in the vintage market. Obviously the perfume isn't from the 1930's but I wonder if it still has scent.
The architecture looks like the early 20th century version of the prefab stuff you can buy now. You can buy a house online these days and, if you have land, they can come "build" it for you in days.
Oh yeah, I'm sure they could. Most of them time, the paper items are damp, wet and soggy. No heating for years does that.
Nice find - not in such bad condition. Looks like a nice setting for a lovely wee house !
ooooo! I love it! outside and in loads to see!! why are books always just left behind and a token quality street filled with crap!!
It was reasonable bare. I find there's either not enough or heaps of the stuff and I'm overwhelmed. I focused in on what there was and some of it was old!.. the best type.
Congratulations @slobberchops! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s):
Your next target is to reach 320000 upvotes.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPGreat walk through and so easily accessible. (For a change)
Nice pictures of this place and all the objects left.
That book looked truly evil hahaha 🤣 funny funny.
Thanks for sharing @slobberchops 👋🏻😎
The full-size version of Mastermind with that same cover art resides somewhere in the family games stash. I quite liked it if I could find an opponent.
I wasn't the thinking type when young. Going out was more fun to me.
That looks kinda spooky to me. Don’t you feel scared while exploring such places?
But i must say you’ve found some amazing stuff there.
Wow, I love what i just read but before i commence if I may ask @slobberchops were do you see all these abandoned building and homes just curious 🧐 that aside.
I loved what you did here LoL only legends would understand, this makes me respect you a lot i call it creativity.
About this Yardley lace, I just converted it to my currency and that is a lot of money left behind i am sure who soever lived there was well to do.
I love all the pictures taken lol and those scary books can't do shit.
not much left but you still saw the interesting bits and bobs
👀
Some of these look like treasures! But I'm a bibliophile - I would've taken the book if nobody wanted it.
And the receipts... 1940... that's too cool for school.
And how's that fabric on the mattresses! And the wallpaper design. OMG. I say buy the place, clean it up a tad and turn it into a museum and scone shack 👍
I'll come bake the cookies