The derelict van with a purpose at Quarrhouse

This is part of the 'Derelict Thursday' challenge, and for it I thought I would go to check on the old derelict van at Quarrhouse to see if it was still there. I drove the long way round via the old Bisley road and then a right turn towards Lypiatt, which is the farmland on the hills above Thrupp and Bowbridge, where we live.

At Lypiatt I spotted an old derelict wooden farm gate into a field looking out towards the Severn Vale and stopped the car to investigate. I took some pictures in case my original destination turned out to have been removed. The fields up there are part of the big estates where farms have managers and owners live in mansions. I also stopped at Nether Lypiatt Manor, a seventeenth century manor house formerly owned by one of the Queen's cousins, but now sold to unknown buyers. I spotted a gardener looking after the front gardens and asked if he minded me taking pictures, which he didn't and so I snapped a few pictures of how the other 'half'/minority live. I must admit that the new owners a=have invested in the property and are looking after it very well. In the early nineteenth century on the death of its owner a Mr Clutterbuck, the land belonging to the Nether Lypiatt estate was divided amongst bios children and his daughter, a Miss B. Clutterbuck, was given all the land behind our house that we see when we look out of our rear windows.

I then drove further along the road to where it drops extremely steeply down into the Golden Valley on its north side at a hamlet called Quarrhouse, named after the limestone quarry in the ancient deer park called Park Wood. This spot was where I had blipped this same old derelict van soon after I started blipping in January 2011 and you should take a look at that blip here, as it fills in a lot of the background to this story. You will also see how quickly trees grow in nearly four years.

Back then I met Cliff, who came to find out why I was taking photos, and my earlier blip will tell you the reason for this van being here. Life turned full circle this morning when Cliff appeared yet again in the same manner having been told by his daughter 'that a man was taking pictures' again. He remembered our earlier meeting and we chatted amiably for ages. He was able to tell me that he had retired now and his wife and their three children had started a cattery in their old barn in the quarry yard from where he formerly used to run his building business. Hence the use of the van to advertise the directions to the cattery which sounds like it is thriving.

I must go back and explore further into Park Wood again and possibly say hello again to his brother Gordon.

Meanwhile, I should urge you to check out SarumStroller's challenge
and see all the other pictures there.

PS
I was rather touched when I looked at my old blip that there were some comments from Amalarian, aka Molly, who was such a favourite amongst early blippers and whom died suddenly not long afterwards. RIP