I have to thank @grindle for letting me in on the whereabouts of The Coffin Maker's House. It's one of those places that you would have a lot of difficulties finding without some assistance.
It seems months ago since @dizzydiscovery and I went far, far to the south to visit this gem of a time capsule, and it was worth the effort.
The Coffin Maker’s House is a little off the beaten track and so we had to park around half a mile away and walk past a large detached property hoping there would be nobody in.
This seemed to be the case as we saw nobody at all, and once on the grounds, access is as easy as walking through the front door.
A little info I picked up is that it has been abandoned for 25 years now and the woman who owned it ended up going into an old people’s home.
As for the coffins, the woman had a relative who was an undertaker who used to store coffins there. The info was provided by a farmer who owns the land adjacent to the property.
I have to challenge this and you can make your mind up after seeing what is below. A certain 'Mr. Meredith' appears to have lived here and was an undertaker. The history and what has been left behind tells all.
Like many of the best places, it has been visited a lot but the dickhead crew still don't know where it is. For this reason, I have had to edit out the address on several of my images to protect anonymity.
Several years ago, a homeless guy was living here but has since moved back to a nearby town.
From what I understand he had permission from the owners and his job was to scare off Urban Explorers and other unwanted guests.
I guess this is where he used to sleep and listen to the radio. Those things consume a lot of battery power and I have my doubts about whether mains power has been seen in recent times.
I found myself bending down to have a look at this and that on many an occasion. It amazes me that there is so much left after years of neglect and that many of these items have not been stolen.
A coffin maker needs a good hearse to put those dead bodies in. Did he buy this model I wonder? £138 to insure your hearse in 1984, how I wish insurance was so cheap now.
I did not look to see if these were decaying peaches or some other body parts.
Before the internet, we had to use these local magazines to buy and sell anything.
Who remembers 'buying on approval?' This has the seventies written all over it.
As you can see, access to The Coffin Maker’s House is relatively simple. Someone seems to have used dynamite on this wall to make things slightly easier still.
Home-sweet-home; The internal design was great and would have been lovely to live in once.
25 years of being empty and yet all this food remains? I find that a tough one to swallow. No doubt this is part of Mr. Homeless's old stash.
There's even intact crockery for your food if you dig deep enough.
So Mr. Meredith liked his caravans, there was one in what used to be the garden in very bad condition.
The newspapers I uncovered were from the '50s to the '90s. A life's worth of stashing.
This was in an outhouse and I dare not prise it open as it would have dissolved in my hands.
I could have spent hours here, it was one of those places where there’s too much to look at.
The hunt for coffins was still on and finally, I found evidence of Mr. Meredith's carpentry, or did he simply buy them in?
The van was crammed with old papers, bank statements, and many personal items.
Things were not looking too good in 1969, almost £2500 in the red. Coffin making was not so buoyant just after the flower power period.
Coffin handles… and many more all around my feet; I’m not ready to go just yet.
2 years later and the debt was now halved. He could even afford a funeral magazine. What else would he be reading?
There was a huge stash of ‘Wildlife’ magazines besides these.
Likewise, the caravan held many a treasure if you cared to look and struggle to get to them.
Someone should really clean that window, I mean how are you even going to see what’s outside?
Marshall Cavendish ran these series of magazines in the seventies and hoped you would be roped into buying them forever. Mr. Meredith obviously did and enjoyed his never-ending encyclopedia series.
This looked intriguing, what was it and what was inside? Do you think I'm that insane to drag myself through all those nettles to look?
This was the oldest newspaper clipping I found. 1952, woo.., now that’s old.
After messing around in the garden, van, caravan, and downstairs, it was time to check the upstairs area.
That's if it would take our weight, the house was not in great condition but still... there were stairs.
OK, so some rooms had fared better than others. There are large holes between the mishmash of junk that you can see and equally large drops.
Still, there was more stuff again and we found ourselves looking just about everywhere for anything that looked interesting.
Hydrogen Peroxide is an antiseptic to treat cuts and scrapes and is also used to whiten teeth in more modern times. I doubt this bottle was purchased for the latter reason.
Inflation was rife in 1972. Half a pence more.. just terrible!
The Coffin Maker's House was the highlight of our day. What a place, full of surprises, history, and all-around grotty goodness.
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Such a great treasure for old stuffs in the Coffin Maker's House.
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No shortage of stuff there.
I am surprised you didn't throw in any close ups of the girly magazine that was on the floor in the first photo. At least that is what it looks like it was. This looks like it was a really great find for you. I am glad you were finally able to find something virtually untouched.
I had not even noticed, and had to source my original and zoom in. Yes, it's a girly magazine.. even the homeless have their needs.
Leave it to me to spot that!
That was an interesting walk through, thank you. I wonder how much those coffin handles would be worth today. They looked so new in their wrappers. I was surprised at how well the little green houses looked. they seemed to be the most solid of any of the buildings.
I didn't look in the greenhouses, such were the other distractions. Coffin handles.. I just looked.. as little at $1-$1.50 each. It never crosses my mind to take or steal anything.., it just isn't done.
Nice little time capsule. You struck lucky there.
Not luck, I knew it was a good one.. but it exceeded my expectations. Seeing someone else's report and experiencing a gem are totally different.
Well you were lucky it is still preserved. Some idiot would enjoy torching it.
It does puzzle me that it is idiot free. It's not an exclusive or anything. There is hope that other explorers can keep the good ones in the inner circle.
I'm trying to decide whether or not to take your 'old' comment personally :) I'm older than that newspaper.
What a time capsule! It really looks like somebody just went out for a drink and never came back. Pretty weird.
It's my way of keeping young..., ''isn't that old!'.., or that is the reasoning behind it. However,.. it would be more than a decade before I popped on to planet earth. Hope you feel younger now!
Feeling younger is quite relative. Some days it works, some days it doesn't. :)
That is one awesome explore.
I used to have one of those detachable speakers blasters, when I was about 11 I think - so early to mid 80s.
Fuck Woman's Weekly, I was honestly expecting you to find a stash of Razzles.
Well @bozz did spot some on the floor which I missed, but there was no large stack. I did find quite a bit in another place (not published yet), lived in by some hermit.
Wow, you could spend today looking back through your photos and try to track down which edition using this handy 'classic wank mags' image search tool.
The vibe of the coffin maker's house seems like a haunted house.
Thanks for the tour, many interesting things in there.
It honestly didn't feel spooky at all inside and with all the holes in the windows, doors and walls it could have been outside!
Always amazing to see how time takes a toll. Nature seems to be reclaiming it steadily.
Yes... big time.. trees inside.
Having Clint Mansell’s Requiem for a Dream score play in the background gave this a whole eerie feel.
That black TV seemed surprisingly clean compared to everything else.
It is one of my better ones, some are falling apart around me. Blow too hard and you're crushed under the rubble.
I guess there's some sort of unwritten urbex rule about look and leave? Some of these old items would look so cool in the house. And the handwritting in those diaries looks so neat, we can't write anymore nowadays
Very much so, I would not have the heart to take anything, it's not my stuff. It's bad enough we trespass, but nicking stuff just isn't done by the real explorers.
I get a little practise so can just about manage!
great find there - handwritten stuff dating back so far and still preserved. Got to say that jar next to the television does look suspiciously like containing pickled ears. 🙄
Those pickled ears have been photographed lots of times. Nobody has dared lift the lid... yet.
Wow just look at that life of someone over there. I love the fact there is a peek in there and see how someone was living. History stuff and peeking and bush growing over.. sweet!
It's great delving into the past and being really nosey. Leaving all this behind.. what else was I supposed to do?
Wow, that is a treasure trove of stuff! I wonder if those peaches were pickled eggs mutated over the years :0D
It's nice to see a place that isn't tagged with graffiti even if the graffiti is sometimes amusing.
Not even a whiff of graffiti, the idiots have not landed yet. I resisted opening up the jar lid, I know better. That and opening fridges.. one can pass out quite easily!
Nicely done, you found some great treasure! I see they have chopped all the undergrowth down. When I was there a lot of saplings had been marked with orange paint, and there was a team of tree fellers mooching about Doing stuff.
A fantastic place that, and going through his finances was very revealing. It didn't pay to be a coffin maker around 1970!
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I try to imagine the homeless guy sleeping here.... Not a nice image for sure
What a great place to find! Would love a read through those old newspapers.
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