DERELICTION PARADISE

We had a great service at Church with good worship songs and a great sermon on our Church verse for the year, “The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10).

Interestingly, when we were having coffee after the service, we were speaking to a friend who said that she had seen some wonderful dereliction on Bodmin Moor, and she had thought of us because we always went out looking on a Sunday after Church, but it was on a very narrow road so she didn’t like to stop and take a photograph!

Before we went out looking for dereliction, Mr. HCB looked at the map book, which is most unusual for him.  He wouldn’t tell me where we were going, just that it would be a longer outing than normal and that it would be a good to charge the battery in the car - and I thought he had some wonderful dereliction in mind - just shows how wrong you can be!

We made our way down the M4 Motorway, and I fully expected Mr. HCB to go off at the Chippenham turnoff, but that didn’t happen so as we neared the Bath exit and he was rather late in indicating, trying to fool me, I’m sure, that’s where we turned off.  Instead of going towards Bath, we went along the A46, so I asked where he was heading;  he told me that he didn’t have anywhere in mind - which surprised me - but said he was hoping we might see some dereliction, particularly as it was a different area.  He did say that if we couldn’t find any dereliction on our way back, we could always go to Liddington, where we know there is some I haven’t photographed.

And then………we came upon “Dereliction Paradise” - just before we came to Old Sodbury, on the right hand side of the road, but as we saw it, we had passed it and with traffic behind us, Mr. HCB couldn’t stop, so had to find somewhere to turn round, which he did.  I don’t know who owns this scrap yard, because there were no signs, but it was a wonderful display of dereliction.  What a find!  We pulled in at the entrance to see that the entrance gate was well chained with about 6 different padlocks.

When we got out of the car, and the verge was wide enough for us to walk along some way, we saw an old house and several derelict petrol pumps, see my extra shot, so Mr. HCB wondered if it had originally been a garage with a house behind.  There were also lots of old cars and trucks, garden ornaments covered with moss indicating they had been there for sometime, garden statues, rusty oil drums and gas cylinders - you name it, there was dereliction a-plenty.  In fact, I was spoilt for choice.  There was coiled razor wire all along the front, with a sign saying it was private property and that guard dogs were on patrol, but we didn’t hear any barking and in any case, we wondered who would want to steal any of the stuff from here?

“Every ruin gives you a clear message: 
     Even your most durable things 
          will turn into ruins!” 
Mehmet Murat ildan