Towers ruins

Alton Towers, the palatial stately home which nowadays gives its name to the amusement park in its grounds, looks – from a distance – to be still the once grand aristocratic home it once was.
You’d never guess it is largely a ruin.

After the earls left in the early 20th century, it fell into disrepair, then dereliction.

If you walk up close (as any paying visitor to the park can do), you can see the crows flying in and out of the unroofed rooms. And there is no access, even to spaces that still have decoration (the chapel for example) because of how dangerous the state of the fabric is.

 

To be fair to the owners of the park & estate, what is left is kept in some sort of order, and repairs to the building did go on apace for over ten years from 1999 when there were even tours of the safer parts, but it all seems to have slowed a bit.
The restoration project still is alive, but, as I say, it moves slowly.

Lock-up in lockdown

This fascinating small round building in Alton village in fact must have been rather grim for its occupants. It is the village's lock-up (temporary prison) - and has no windows. It dates to the early 19th century.

The English language is odd.  Is someone consigned to a lock-up... in lock-down?

Bavaria in Staffordshire

This view could be one taken in Bavaria, or even the Czech Republic - but no, this is good old Staffordshire. I like taking visitors along the now-disused Alton railway line, and when I say "hey - look up at that!", they look up and - as they see this sight - their eyes widen...

Alton Castle - a neo-Gothic romance built in the 19th century - is owned by the Catholic Church, and is now private offices, so you can't go into it, though you can get close to it from the driveway in Alton village.

Quite a view, this one, aint it?

Golden roof

Green and gold tiles line the roof of Alton Castle, a nineteenth-century Gothic-style building (designed by the architect Pugin) in Alton village.
The colours give it a sort of romantic grandeur I think.

He made the desert smile

The Alton Towers Gardens were mentioned in a previous post on here, but I hadn't realised that the gardens had been articificially created in what was a 'dry valley'. Thousands of trees were shipped in and a local spring diverted.

The monument in the photo was set up to remember the man who undertook this huge work - Charles, the 15th Earl of Shrewsbury, who died in 1827.


The monument's subscription reads: "He Made The Desert Smile".

Alton tree-sign

You have to admire the Staffordshire County’s footpaths officers – they don’t put up unnecessary signposts…

This huge fallen tree had collapsed over the top of a footpath through Alton woods; and the officers (I should guess), realising that the tree was unlikely to be going anywhere, just stuck their footpath badge right on to it!
And that seems fine to me.

Rootsy in Alton

Nature is amazing, huh? Nothing new in that statement, but I was reminded of it during this walk near Alton Towers.

I felt I had to take a photo of this huge tree (100 feet high) which appears to be supporting itself even though the ground beneath half of it has fallen away. It is balancing itself by inserting huge and strong roots in... what looks to be sheer rock.

PS - sorry to have been away a while. My internet-access went down, which seems to happen more and more.