Cliffe Park Hall
History complied from: http://www.rudyardlake.com/cliffe-park/
Cliffe Park Hall was built in 1811, upon a hilltop above Rudyard Lake. Costing £25,000 at the time and built by John Haworth and Reverend James Bostock. The ownership later fell to Haworth's other cousin, Fanny Bostock. Legal action was put in place against North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) with an attempt to reduce popularity of the area. The estate was split up after the death of Fanny Bostock in 1875. A few years down the line and the NSR bought the property with intent to build a golf course on the surrounding land. The hall was to be demolished and replaced by a newly built club house but luckily this didn't go ahead. Instead new locker rooms and changing rooms were added. The golf course was built and operated up until 1926 where it could no longer due to post war conditions and reduced train services. From this point on, the hall was leased to the Youth Hostel Association (YHA) by the LMS Railway Company during 1933. The hostel then required renovation after the war. It took negotiations with British Rail (the newer owners), for YHA to take full ownership and begin the works in 1955. In 1958 the hostel re-opened.
The hostel ran up until 1969, where the building was sold to a man named Brian Dalley who passed away in 2015.
The property still stands not too dissimilar to how it was back when these photographs were taken.
After a full day out with @UrbandonedTeam and partly completing a bunch of places we ended up here on one evening. When we arrived at the hall, we had little trouble picking our timing to head towards our entrance point. We found ourselves beginning our exploration calmly. However, knowing that there were multiple PIR sensors throughout, we had to be cautious.
We began by exploring the less striking rooms and winding our way through the corridors in search for the stunning architecture this place holds.
Once we reached the grand staircase we had mainly come to see, we noticed a white blob on the wall. The twilight lighting made it hard for us to distinguish whether or not this was one of the sensors. With it being around the most impressive part of the structure we were pretty sure it was. Having no other choice, we edged towards it before inevitably setting it off. We left to allow the alarm to ring out and see if anyone turned up. After timing the point from when we left to the point the alarm went off we also formulated a plan to pass the sensor. We re-entered and successfully passed it allowing us to get downstairs and see the best parts the hall had to offer.
At first, we shot without our lights with the thought any movement might re-trigger the sensors around us. After testing this, we found out we were fine. This was useful as the little natural light outside had trouble getting in around the bottom floors.
The darker it got the harder it became to shoot the main staircase, so I had a go at light painting it but the results aren't as good as I had hoped...
We produced a video on the site, showing a few more parts of the building and our troubles with the sensor. If you're interested feel free to give it a watch and leave some feedback
Thanks for reading!
History complied from: http://www.rudyardlake.com/cliffe-park/
Cliffe Park Hall was built in 1811, upon a hilltop above Rudyard Lake. Costing £25,000 at the time and built by John Haworth and Reverend James Bostock. The ownership later fell to Haworth's other cousin, Fanny Bostock. Legal action was put in place against North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) with an attempt to reduce popularity of the area. The estate was split up after the death of Fanny Bostock in 1875. A few years down the line and the NSR bought the property with intent to build a golf course on the surrounding land. The hall was to be demolished and replaced by a newly built club house but luckily this didn't go ahead. Instead new locker rooms and changing rooms were added. The golf course was built and operated up until 1926 where it could no longer due to post war conditions and reduced train services. From this point on, the hall was leased to the Youth Hostel Association (YHA) by the LMS Railway Company during 1933. The hostel then required renovation after the war. It took negotiations with British Rail (the newer owners), for YHA to take full ownership and begin the works in 1955. In 1958 the hostel re-opened.
The hostel ran up until 1969, where the building was sold to a man named Brian Dalley who passed away in 2015.
The property still stands not too dissimilar to how it was back when these photographs were taken.
After a full day out with @UrbandonedTeam and partly completing a bunch of places we ended up here on one evening. When we arrived at the hall, we had little trouble picking our timing to head towards our entrance point. We found ourselves beginning our exploration calmly. However, knowing that there were multiple PIR sensors throughout, we had to be cautious.
We began by exploring the less striking rooms and winding our way through the corridors in search for the stunning architecture this place holds.
Once we reached the grand staircase we had mainly come to see, we noticed a white blob on the wall. The twilight lighting made it hard for us to distinguish whether or not this was one of the sensors. With it being around the most impressive part of the structure we were pretty sure it was. Having no other choice, we edged towards it before inevitably setting it off. We left to allow the alarm to ring out and see if anyone turned up. After timing the point from when we left to the point the alarm went off we also formulated a plan to pass the sensor. We re-entered and successfully passed it allowing us to get downstairs and see the best parts the hall had to offer.
At first, we shot without our lights with the thought any movement might re-trigger the sensors around us. After testing this, we found out we were fine. This was useful as the little natural light outside had trouble getting in around the bottom floors.
The darker it got the harder it became to shoot the main staircase, so I had a go at light painting it but the results aren't as good as I had hoped...
We produced a video on the site, showing a few more parts of the building and our troubles with the sensor. If you're interested feel free to give it a watch and leave some feedback
Thanks for reading!
