Tuesday 23 February 2021

More than a Doer Upper

This house is close to the road to Chateauroux. I fear it may be too late to save it (and doing so would render some goats homeless).


It amazes me that the countryside and villages are littered with so many empty falling down buildings. Some are little (or not so little) half timbered cottages, some were once elegant townhouses.  Sooner or later though, many of them will probably find owners who will love them back into life - if they don't fall down first.

5 comments:

Ken Broadhurst said...

I wonder if just as many old houses weren't torn down or left to fall into ruin in the U.K., to make way for terraces and (what we in the U.S. call) subdivisions (lotissements in French) — large plots of land that are divided into small parcels. I know that in North Carolina many old houses, sometimes very big ones, and especially those close to 20th and 21st century highways, are left to rot and tumble. Nobody really wants them any more. People want modern, insulated, well-wired, comfortable.

Susan said...

Ken -- I think the situation is a bit different in the UK, although certainly many old houses have been abandoned or demolished. Death duties were abolished in the UK which made a big difference to the demolition of big old houses, although they still have to be maintained. James Lees Milne and the National Trust set up the Country House Scheme, so important old houses were acquired for the nation. In rural areas vernacular architecture is quite strictly protected now eg in the Yorkshire Dales.

Simon Leather said...

Yes, there are a couple of rather, what used to be quite grand houses in similar states of disrepair on the main road from Prades to Perpignan which we always wonder about. That said up in the Scottish Highlands you can also see similar sites

Jean said...

It used to amaze me to see so many empty and abandoned properties left to fall down in our part of France. I am used to it now after all these years!
They are very few and far between in the UK, principally because even if the house is in a poor state the land is valuable. Often a small house on a big plot will be sold and demolished to allow for two or three modern houses to be built in its place. If the house is not worth doing up the land will still be worth quite a lot, both in urban and rural settings.

Susan said...

Yes, good point Jean.

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