SubscribeAn empty house tucked away in the forest promised a good day out. It is commonly known as Potters Mansion and relativly little seems to be known about the people that once lived in such a grand setting in the Sussex Countryside.
My dear Rikke has done a bit of a search and come up with the following:
“The history
Potters Manor House was built in 1904 by the classical architect Hugh Jokin. It nestles well hidden near the village of Nevertell just off the A40999 in Hampnex. The last inhabitants were a family of artisans and potters and for some reason, that we will probably never know, left the house with all its contents including many paintings and full wardrobes of clothes.http://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Orchid-…/dp/0903554003
Possibly more history
I’ve done a bit of googling, and think I might have found out more about the people living in this magnificent house. Spread around the house are sketches, layouts and even early prints of the book “A book of Orchid Paintings” by James F. Walford. That name seems to be appearing several places, so I googled him and wow, looks like he actually had his book printed:
Furthermore I found some family history. James Francis Walford y de Borbón was born in 1913 at Paris, France. He is the son of Leopold Walford and Cristina de Borbón y de Muguiro, Duquesa de Marchena. He married Muriel Whitley (born 1906) in 1957 at London, England. I think this might be the right James F. Walford, as there are loads of French books spread around the house – matching the fact he is born in Paris and of a French family.”
A mere 90 minutes from the front door, but suprisingly hard to pin point. I overshot the first attempt to find it by about two miles, but a short trip up the road, skirt the edge of one field and we stood there infront of the house.
It at first doesn’t look that big but once you clamber over the pile of rubble and are through the front door the size of the place hits you. It is a warren of old, overgrown rooms, filled with paintings with eyes that follow you through the house.
Pieces of pottery and china lay scattered along side empty drinks bottles. Holes have started to appear in the floor and the damp and mould is well set in. A great many books lay in piles around the house and hint at the lives of the former residents. I can find hundreds of art post cards but not a single photogragph. Are these portraits of the people that used to live here that lay around the room? The lay in odd places and their eyes follow you as you walk around, unable to do anything to prevent the decay, you feel as if they should scream and tear themselves from the canvas in an attempt to save their home and see us off.
A broken record player stands crooked in the sitting room, a leg is broken, the arm extends, feeling for the music that isn’t there – equally banished to a silent existence. Exploration is about the silence, the quietness that is only broken by footsteps. We arrive and leave in silence and this is maintained through our stay less we are caught and here even in such deep countryside, we are cautious about breaking the peace that has fallen over the house.
In a bedroom we find objects that hint at the woman who may have left here, loosing her hair, clining to the past and now unable to see her favourite artworks in person, has nothing but the post cards that hint of neither texture or brushstroke. Her house would have started to crumble around her. The luxurey in which she and her family had once lived had turned to ruin and imprisoned her.
We photograph the remains of lives and of times that are more than forgotten. Not all exploration is a look at epic buildings. The Potters Mansion is an intimate look at scraps. It is more detailed and colourful than a great turbine hall and tells a more personal story. It is more voyeristic. The owners are long since dead and we now rifle through their home.
I photographed, always aware that this was a very personal trespass and yet I could not stop myself. The grey clouds rolled in across the blue sky and darkness drew in. It was time to leave.
Many thanks to all the people who said I could do it. Also many, many thanks to the people at Westminster who thought my portfolio cut the mustard. And finally many thanks to the people who got me into the world of Urbex and shoved me in the right direction of my first beautiful sites, many of which made up my portfolio selection.