
Imagine if you were exploring Parlington Woods in the early 1950’s on a cold and dark winter’s day and out of the gloom you were confronted with the desolate scene of the abandoned old hall, you might be forgiven for imagining that there was more to the place than simply a derelict old building. Crossing what used to be the svelte garden lawns, now rough unkempt grass and weeds, ahead is the huge semi-circular bay window, you might venture into the old Dining Room stooping beneath the broken transom as you pass through the large storey height sash windows in the bay, bereft of glass for years, old internal wooden window shutters, hanging by a single hinge creaking as you brush past. A remnant of fabric from the curtains limply tickles against your face. The smell of damp and rotting wood, floors holed through the ancient boards. In the dim light on a winter’s late afternoon, things take on a different character, there are endless noises from beyond within the woods, the hall is not silent it gives off occasional sounds, unexplainable, again outside the screech from an owl amplified through the empty spaces in the old hall, cause the heart to miss a beat. Your footsteps over the wooden floor, crunch through years of detritus, the walls seem to come in on you, old wallpaper hangs in shreds, and large sections of plaster have gone. There is a black gaping hole where once a fine fireplace stood, soot a foot deep at its base, where the hearth had been. Should you press on, risking discovery by the gamekeeper for trespassing, or is the desire to discover more of this old place sufficient to drive you on?
You are in a large room, off to your right having entered through the centre window of three in the large bay is where the fireplace had been, beyond is a doorway in the right-hand corner of the room, similarly in the opposite corner, to your left, is a second doorway. The doors and frames are gone the jagged end of masonry and old plaster is all that remains. It is pitch black beyond the doorways. Which way, to the left or through the doorway on the right? Okay, right it is, carefully avoiding the hole in the floor by the doorway, barely seen in the low light. Now in another room but significantly smaller, again a void where the fireplace had been in the wall opposite, also another doorway to the left of the fireplace… a glimmer of light beyond, so through here, ah, outside again! Phew!
“Oi you!”, balled the gamekeeper, “what do you think you are up to?”