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    Arrow An unusual vist to Hope Hall, Bramham. Dec '08

    There aren't many places you explore where you feel the need to wipe your feet. There aren't that many places you visit though which have the rich history and faded majesty as Hope Hall.
    Hope Hall is old, and was built in the 1600's, as one of the great houses of the Bramham Estate, 4 miles north west of Leeds. Nowadays, Bramham Park is home to the world famous horse trials, and Leeds festival, yet, deep in the woodland lies Hope Hall, forgotten, empty and strangely odd.
    Already the winter sun was low in the sky as we parked, the day previously had been mixed; full of half explores, an encounter with the police and dead ends. This was something different though, a remote country house away from the city, and potentially something new and exciting. The approach to the house was faintly unnerving. A quick gallop through the woodland away from the occassional car, and then a stealthy approach through frozen rhodedendrons until we saw it.
    A first view.


    Sir Thomas Fairfax had lived here, back in the 1640's as he lead the New Model Army into battle during the English Civil war. Much later, important archaeologist Pitt Rivers was born here in 1827. Here he is, after he moved into one of the other great houses of Bramham.


    We decided to check out the outside of the building first, and take any externals, for the light was fading fast. All looked ok, although TC spotted a sign saying "dogs loose" crudely painted on a board. We ignored it, and headed for the entrance. It seemed odd that the door was open.


    Heading in, we set up in the first room, a large sitting room. Around us, the house was silent.


    Inside was fairly dark, the only light coming from the open doors, and a missing board. The rooms were carpeted on the whole, and occasional pieces of furniture could be picked out by torch light. People had obviously been in, and yet things remained intact and undisturbed. In the scullery, sinks were off the wall.


    The Hall had clearly been divided more recently, into three seperate houses. The one we visited first was the largest, and was likely to have been home to the Master of the Hounds, for this was, until 2002 where the kenneling for the Bramham hunt was based. (Bramham.org)


    A beautiful staircase in a hall way of lifting tiles led upstairs into the dark. We headed on up.


    Upstairs was mainly empty, except a discarded electric fire and a large wooden warderobe on the wide landing at the top of the staircase. The bedrooms were empty, except for a pile of rubble where men had crudely levered away ornate stone fireplaces and taken them away to sell. The whole of the Hall was decorated in bright coloured painted woodchip wallpaper, and last looked like it had been redone in the late 1970's. Beneath it in one of the rooms was a remnant from a different age.


    We headed down, and into the ever fading light.


    The next part of the Hall was by far and away the worst in terms of condition. water poured incessantly from an unidentified source (fractured water main?) and the floor had given way. Access across the room was impossible, although a large pile of rubbish in the doorway blocked off the view into the kitchen. The sitting room was trashed, although not by people but nature. In the middle was a television and video.
    Last edited by boxfrenzy; 08-12-2008 at 11:17 PM.

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