Tales of the Urban Explorer: The Welly House

“We will need to be careful as there is a 5ft aggressive dwarf who wears size 13 wellies knocking about”, I explained to @anidiotexplores with the most serious face I could muster.

Said dwarf had captured @grindle while inside “The Welly House” doing his nefarious deeds, and I can imagine the uncompromising position my comrade would have had to endure while squeezing out of 'the hole'.

23_IMG_9795_23.jpg

Both of us would have been terrified of hearing those words.., "what the bloody hell are you doing in there” while in the depths of this lost and forgotten Time Capsule known to so few.

We found the handy but very overgrown public footpath running adjacent to the property and spied our target in the distance.

Not a soul around and so rural that the footpath could well be a forgotten walkway.

1_IMG_9772_1.jpg

Navigating one lot of barbed wire we stealthily approached looking for signs of this small, but stout sour-natured one who appeared to tend the gardens around “The Welly House”.

If you can call mowing the grass, tending that is.

24_IMG_9796_24.jpg

I wondered what WellyMan's association was with this ancient rotting house, given he would not tell @grindle when asked.

The nearby sheep were making noise, a lot of noise, so much it was disconcerting. One rushed me in an attempt to fill my veins with terror, but like a true explorer I stood my ground.

31_IMG_9837_31.jpg

...'can you please shut the fuck up, WellyMan's going to hear you'...

Yes, I am not making this up.., Welsh sheep are more ferocious than my English counterparts.

It pulled up short and I feigned a Dracula impersonation which made it think twice; the sheep backed off slowly.. unconvinced.

fuck off sheep, you stupid twat

There is but one entrance into "The Welly House" and that is feet first, and to feel your way through that gap which is smaller than it looks.

22_IMG_9794_22.jpg

Otherwise, you are doing a handstand on a glass-ridden wobbly table, 4 feet lower.

Struggling flat on my belly, I wriggled backward trying to find some kind of surface to plant my foot on.

If you want to become an explorer, expect to do this a lot. It’s not all walk in the front door and into another dimension.

Inside was sparse and yet full of atmosphere. I feel few have been down inside this cavern that holds relics from seventy years gone by.

2_IMG_9773_2.jpg

We would find out later that the probable late Mrs. Cottrell, was a TV freak. Not content with one TV, a backup was handily placed on the floor for emergency use.

3_IMG_9774_3.jpg

If the fire runs low, you can always feed it books. Paper burns quite well.

4_IMG_9776_4.jpg

You wouldn’t want to read them, or even turn the pages in this condition?

5_IMG_9777_5.jpg

It's before my time, and correct me if I am wrong but the device in the corner precedes the Electric Iron?

17_IMG_9789_17.jpg

Jeez, it was grotty down there but no less interesting.

6_IMG_9778_6.jpg

The old cooker I feel will never cook anything again. There’s a bill for auto-spares on the top, and maybe the auto-spares too.

7_IMG_9779_7_censored.jpg

I looked on the window-sill and more so at all the old bills still there, untouched in years.

The 1950’s, bloody hell!

8_IMG_9780_8_censored.jpg

If that’s an invoice for £9.. that was a fortune in 1955.

9_IMG_9781_9_censored.jpg

£1, 3s, 10d was also not a paltry sum. Pay up or there will be trouble.

10_IMG_9782_10_censored.jpg

There’s proof that the UK used to use 'Gallons', and gallons of water consumed by Mrs. Cottrell. She must have been a thirsty woman to have a water bill for over £2.

11_IMG_9783_11.jpg

All these appear very bovine related; treatment for cows, and other animals.

12_IMG_9784_12.jpg

No glasses, this is what you drink from and more books when that fire gets low.

13_IMG_9785_13.jpg

Some had the bottle tops still affixed. I mean there’s a limit to what even I will even open and swig from.

14_IMG_9786_14.jpg

The woman is quite obsessed with... Cows.

15_IMG_9787_15.jpg

The Dettol would come in quite handy down in this old grot-cellar of a house.

16_IMG_9788_16.jpg

The front door would have been a much more preferential entry point, but a lot less fun.

18_IMG_9790_18.jpg

Hydrowhat? Hydroshit maybe!

19_IMG_9791_19.jpg

I can see where the Fallout games get their food box design from.

20_IMG_9792_20.jpg

These small receipt tabs are a little later at 1968; still expensive at over £2. I do wonder if Mrs. Cottrell tended all these cows single-handedly?

We should have made more of an effort to look ‘upstairs’. With two of us, there’s always the leg-up option.

21_IMG_9793_21.jpg

The bottom stair looked ready to snap off if touched.

Getting out was a complete pain in the arse. With little leverage, you simply have to wiggle out and it takes a while.

WellyMan sporting his Wellington Boots fortunately did not make an appearance and subject us to a savage kick in the face of which we would not be able to defend against.

28_IMG_9800_28.jpg

25_IMG_9797_25.jpg

We checked the local barn, which contained a few pieces of bygone rusting equipment.

26_IMG_9798_26.jpg

..as well as an upper level which sported evidence of sheep. How they got up there is anyone’s guess.

30_IMG_9803_30.jpg

Another sealed-up small barn contained yet more of Mrs. Cottrell's backup TVs. There is obsession but this is extreme. A distant photo is all we could muster through a small gap.

I conclude Mrs. Cottrell was a bovine-loving, TV-obsessed singleton, who drank gallons of water, read lots of books, and then used them to keep warm by the fire.

A fair assessment?

RedLine.png

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.

RedLine.png

TalesLogo.JPG

RedLine.png


CurieCurator.jpg

RedLine.png

Drooling Maniac.JPG

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.



0
0
0.000
53 comments
avatar

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?

  • Go to Pinmapple
  • Click the get code button
  • Click on the map where your post should be (zoom in if needed)
  • Copy and paste the generated code in your post (Hive only)
  • Congrats, your post is now on the map!

0
0
0.000
avatar

Fair assessment indeed.

That's a cool location. There's a lot of neat stuff in there. The old iron especially. Could you image going back in time with like 25 thousand in currency? A person could live like a king! Lol.
Imagine how much water you could drink 🤔

0
0
0.000
avatar

It's very hidden away and off the radar, and long may it stay there. WellyMan would freak out, and need a new pair if the TourBus ever started doing weekend deals.

0
0
0.000
avatar

That part of the device looks like the roller washing machine. Perhaps, used as clothes dryer or to flatten clothes :)

0
0
0.000
avatar

It's some kind of wrangling device. I have seen them occasionally at other explores. A thing of the past.

0
0
0.000
avatar

It's a mangle :) I've never had to use one.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Mangles were used to squeeze the water our of fabrics/clothes after they had been washed in a tub by hand - you feed them through the small gap in the rollers. Washing machines were not so common before the 70s because a lot of people in the UK simply couldn't afford them

0
0
0.000
avatar

This is a pretty interesting explore. It looks very small from the first picture but then that second and third picture make it look much bigger. Unless of course that is a totally separate building. Very Fallout-esque for sure!

0
0
0.000
avatar

It was quite small inside, the upstairs is my regret. There could have been much more up there. More effort needed.

0
0
0.000
avatar

It didn't even look like it could have an upstairs at first. Probably just a bunch of old clothes maybe. Plus a bathroom? Didn't see one of those on the lower level did we?

0
0
0.000
avatar

Aye, the bathroom is probably there, and the floor is likely to be OK as the lower roof seemed intact. As I will never go back, we will never know what lurked up there.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Maybe someone on one of your groups will do the explore and post some pictures.

0
0
0.000
avatar

A house that old might not have a bathroom. There could be a tin bath and a 'privvy' in a separate building. My parents remember places like that. Our old cottage had an extension in the 50s to add a bathroom and the old privvy was still there (but not used) until about 20 years ago.

0
0
0.000
avatar

OMG. The inside of Welly looks so messy. On the first glance I thought I am looking at an impressionist painting !LOL

0
0
0.000
avatar

Yes, it was extra mucky down through the hole. If there were only a few more like this one.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Amazing photography! i will be following you mate!

cant read narrative as i am missing my bus!

Eythorphoto!
new_banner.jpg

0
0
0.000
avatar

The best only good part is having multiple books in this house, like this miserable situation we can't find something to read. But home is really disordered from more sides
Living here is better than any type of money 💰 what do you think?

0
0
0.000
avatar

This was likely my favourite explore yet!!!...

I think you should carry a small stick ladder (essentially disposable - but strong enough that you could get up those stairs with ease).

I believe the mystery device is an old (possibly auld) washing ringer. You can still get them example

If you go back a little later, there might be a celebration. It'll look something like this.


image.png

0
0
0.000
avatar

I think you should carry a small stick ladder

I try and go as light as possible. More stuff to carry.., it doesn't fit the incognito look. I have some ladders in the car if necessary, they rarely get used.

I believe the mystery device is an old (possibly auld) washing ringer.

You can still get them, mangles.. something from past ages!

0
0
0.000
avatar

Hehe, I guess that a full tactical gear setup wouldn't do to well when it comes to incognito. :-)

0
0
0.000
avatar

What a great article, am so impressed with the writeup it makes sense a lot. thanks you for sharing this with us.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Wow, a proper time capsule! Those TVs are from before my time and we didn't have colour until I was at least 10. God, I'm old!

I expect you enjoyed this, even if the sheep are vicious.

0
0
0.000
avatar

and we didn't have colour until I was at least 10.

No colour? Our 'big' telly was always colour, the little crappy one upstairs was black and white and black lines used to start infiltrating the top area gradually drifting downward and obscuring the view. A quick bang removed them, but not for long. Those old tellies had personality.

0
0
0.000
avatar

I remember coming home from school when the colour telly had arrived. Maybe my memory is distorted :) I know we had a black and white portable that could be run off a car battery when camping.

I wonder what the equivalent prices of TVs were back then. Probably pretty expensive and of course you paid more for a colour licence. I'm sure one of my uni lecturers saying he had stuck with B&W because of that. Now we have 3 big tellies at home and access to so much stuff. How times change.

Those sets in the house could be attractive to collectors, but the place should be left as it is.

0
0
0.000
avatar

but the place should be left as it is.

That last statement.., they get stolen fast these old things. I don't for a minute believe any of them still work but when the word gets out they grow legs very quickly.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Doesn't surprise me. There's a big market for vintage stuff even if it doesn't work.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Ukk.. makes me shudder. It still belongs to someone.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Nice to see the barns and the telly stack, that bastard in the wellies hoofed me off too soon.

0
0
0.000
avatar

There was an old motorcycle but my image was blurred so I deleted it. You did well to get upstairs. The 'helpful aid' I see on your post... eg, a wobbly bit of wood was absent when we visited.

Never seen sheep that aggressive in my life, and it wasn't lambing season. Noisy fuckers!

0
0
0.000
avatar

i think if welly man saw you he would run a mile!!! good you managed to squeeze in!

0
0
0.000
avatar

This is the best article have ever read...weldone and thanks for sharing

0
0
0.000
avatar

Thanks, but it's advisable not to downvote something you like (as you have).

0
0
0.000
avatar

That should be a mistake

0
0
0.000
avatar

Fallout totally had their eye on the ball!

What crazy colours in there. The WellyMan, love it. Might even nick it, lol!

0
0
0.000
avatar

I was scrambling around with nothing to grip while getting out of that hole. With WellyMan watching it must have been more than embarrassing. The number of times @anidiotexplores has laughed at my lack of style when climbing is countless. Age does us no favours at all.

0
0
0.000
avatar
(Edited)

I wouldn't have been able to stop humming that *Wellerman comes" song that was ever so popular last year. Climbing in/out of holes is certainly something that age doesn't improve. Lol!

0
0
0.000
avatar

She must have been a thirsty woman to have a water bill for over £2.

Probably the garden and the animals?

0
0
0.000
avatar

It has been a staple for me to search for you guys here in the top hive posts. A woman who loves TV, drinks over a gallon of water, and treats cows. She was ready for retirement I tell you. Great venturing dudes!

0
0
0.000
avatar

You had me at the old mangle by the chimneypiece painted that 'between the wars' green that always seems So English to me. Another amazing adventure...I wish I had a large footed be-wellied dwarf who kept my lawn shorn. Thanks @slobberchops

0
0
0.000
avatar

She had Birds custard so shes alright in my book! A place where I would have thought you would find a couple of used Johnnys. 😂

0
0
0.000
avatar

How do you find these places? It really is like taking a step back in time. Very different times when this place was last inhabited, likely the 60s or 70s.

0
0
0.000