The "D" words

Wednesday, 15 December 2010 12:54

No not "desperate", "defunct" or "down and out"!

Desolation, desertion, destruction and dereliction. Those were my thoughts as I saw the ruins of Hampton Gay Manor.

Elizabethan Hampton Gay Manor - clickety click for photo of house in better days.

Sometimes it is so sad to see houses left to fall down and be forgotten. However there can be a strange beauty too. This ruin is regarded as "unsafe"; the manor was destroyed by fire in 1887, leaving just the shell. However for the sake of my "art" I am not above taking a few risks to get good photos!

The fire was regarded as retribution for refusal to allow help and shelter to the victims of the Christmas Eve 1874 rail crash nearby. This may very well be a myth as the owner of the nearby paper mill, which also burnt down at the same time, did offer help. Some of the victims of the crash were buried in the churchyard of St Giles, Hampton Gay.

Below, the site of Shipton on Cherwell rail crash at the River Cherwell near the South Oxford Canal and Shipton over the river:

Once, the view from the front door of the manor would have been of a bustling community - cottages and the farm land of the (now "lost") village - now, all is quiet.

Views from the front door looking SW towards the village and SE towards the fields

Inside would have been a warm hearth with perhaps the smell of bread cooking in the clome oven beside the roaring fire. Now the fire is cold and the chimney is covered in ivy climbing to the sky.

No lights shine from the windows welcoming visitors, just the late afternoon clouds which hide the winter sun reflections.

The Oxfordshire countryside is claiming the land and the old manor - the walkers and once-a-year church goers hardly give it a glance. However, local people and narrowboaters know of the site and it is well worth the walk!