Another rather wet bimble with Urban Spaceman on a not so summer's afternoon.
I'd seen photos of this place, Grade II listed, a hotel sitting in the Lancashire countryside.
It would seem the location was on a need to know basis, you had to somehow locate it yourself or be pre-vetted and be vouched for - and bugger all was coming up on the internet other than reports labelled as Manor H, the anti-vandal/metal thief information lock down was kind of working.
I asked a contact, he said he didn't have a problem telling me the location but first he would have to ok it with his contact, who would have to ask for an ok from his contact - a few days later a "yes" came back.
I hadn't really thought about any of this until the "yes" came back, it was all a circle of trust and it would seem I'm not a tosser after all - which is nice !
Loved these gates - all a bit Sally Sparrow (Google it).
It was raining as only it can do in Lancashire, so after sitting around in the car waiting for a break in the weather I opened the boot of the car and removed the blindfold and gimpmask from Urban Spaceman - perhaps the gagball was a little over the top. We just made a mad dash for it in the lashing rain without hanging about on the external shots.
Things looked a bit grand, with a spooky staircase, all had seen better days and the fireplaces had been ripped out by the local thieves.
Then it got a bit special.....;
Moving on to the function room, not that much of interest to see to be honest, it looked like the last few winters had caused a bit of burst pipe in the ceiling.
A wander further round the back brought us to the Jaguar Graveyard and I must confess I'm not one of these chaps that gets all excited and wobbly at the knees about cars to be honest - a car simply gets me from A to B when I'm not in a plane or on a train.
I should add at this point that I don't think my choice of footwear helped in proceedings as heavy rain had turned the area around the cars into a quagmire and on a number of occasions I found myself ankle deep in orange mud (bit smelly as well).
Please don't ask me the location - coz I'd have to ask him, who needs to ask him, who needs to ask him.