-= 'WARNING: ADULT CONTENT BELOW' =-
When I saw another explorer who I do regular location trades with visit ‘The House of Books’, I knew it was a must go to.
Knowing he injured himself and got talking to a neighbour who was unusually helpful and dealt with his cut hand, as well giving him information about the ex-resident was a bonus.
The house was formally owned by a self-employed electrician who also happened to be a ritual hoarder. He was taken ill, forced out of the house, and placed into a care home.
The locals then took it upon themselves to use his garden as a dumping ground for all their shit.
It’s not much but better than no history, and I was determined to find out more about 'the electrician' after going inside, that's if we could get in.
When viewed from outside of the front garden the view of 'The House of Books' is non-existent, with so much overgrowth and greenery covering, you would likely miss it.
We approached from the side and spotted the usual ineffective 'herras fencing' getting in the way. I could see a spot of climbing would be needed as well as possibly alerting the neighbours to our presence.
It wasn’t a big deal and we were in the grounds within minutes, the neighbours may have been out as it was a Saturday afternoon.
I noted this was far from a pretty house, built using those ugly red bricks that @dizzydiscovery often tells me about being most common in his local area of Oldham.
We immediately spotted the open door but took some time to check out the externals before heading to the main course.
‘The House of Books’ was in a sorry looking external state and I wondered just how many years it had seen neglect.
Why struggle through the back door when the front is wide open? We didn’t fart about and walked straight in.
The visual that struck us was quite surreal. No shit.., this dude was a hoarder and it was showing from the first steps inside.
Now.. if the back looked bad then what about inside?
Who reads the Sunday Sport? I hadn't seen a copy in years and this newspaper full of stories of aliens sleeping with dogs and other outrageous allegations has not changed I see.
I have my doubts that this story of the 30-stone wobbler sunbathing in public is real.
Books everywhere! My comrade was not bull-shitting when he named it ‘The House of Books’. He seemed to be very interested in Chemistry and genetics.
…as well as a touch of classic glamour.
A large room off to the left of the entrance revealed more… books.
These are very academic. Books on law, did he read all this stuff? I took note of the dates with 2006 being the newest.
Everywhere we looked revealed more and more literary material. Some quite coated with pigeon shit.
Was this dude a doctor as well as an electrician?
We climbed the stairs and looked down. Did someone really live like this?
Walking around on the first floor was decidedly more ropey. There was so much junk on the floor, you could not see if it was solid or covering some great big hole.
A rare book free room with some atmosphere and a roof looking to collapse.
This unopened Sunday Times supplement is from 2010, a little newer than the books.
Now should we try and get up to the second floor? The first one was not in great condition.
@dizzydiscovery was balking but I started upwards dragging him reluctantly up behind me.
There was a little problem however in the form of a missing landing area. Could I climb over the railings?
I did ponder and consider it before my sensible head came back and said NO.
Being relegated to somewhere between the first and second floors I could only look upwards to see what I was missing.
You don’t come across derelict hoarder’s houses often. It was quite a sight.
He probably had the entire lot if I had dug further; a star trek geek as well as a doctor, lawyer, and electrician.
It was getting derpier and derpier the higher we climbed.
Mary Millington, now that’s a blast from my teenage years. He is a real traditionalist, this one.
Was he one of these blokes that studied and took multitudes of tests and exams?
In anything scientific, even at the GCSE level?
Is anyone’s head big enough to take all of this in? We are not talking Mills and Boons here.
The cellar area appeared a little more normal. So he did wash and cook as well as throw all his other surplus crap down here.
The garden was not as congested as I thought and did not contain the large piles of stuff I was expecting.
I walked away from the 'The House of Books' feeling I knew the 'electrician', who also likes to hoard, fill his brain with every science known to man, has a thing for vintage porn, is a 'trekkie' and studies for GCSE's... a little better.
What a stunner that was, you don’t get them like this everyday!
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