If you walk right to the top of the carriage drive through the Milner Field estate, you arrive at the North Lodge, which was renovated in 2008 but still demonstrates the heavy gothic style that characterised the original mansion. As I said yesterday, Milner Field house itself was demolished in the 1950s and little now remains. You can barely discern even where its entrance archway branched off the main drive. I wandered through the woods, loosely following the boundary fence to the south.
Eventually I stumbled across a few huge, shaped stones, evidently part of the original house. It seems that over the years much of the stone was plundered for other buildings and some of the interior panelling and roof tiles ended up in Salts Mill itself, so there is not much left to see.
The brickwork appears to be an entrance to the vaulted cellars that ran under the house.
If you look carefully, you can still find the floor outline of the massive conservatory, with kerbstones that bordered the beds and some of its mosaic flooring, though that's believed to date from the 1900s when the conservatory was renovated.
It's interesting to root around the site. I also have a fascinating book: 'Milner Field, The Lost Country House of Titus Salt Jnr' by Richard Lee-Van den Daele and R David Beale, that explores its history. Click HERE to see photos and info about the original house.
That place looks amazing!
ReplyDeleteFascinating and sad place. Sad for the former residents, and sad such a beautiful building had to be demolished. Thank you for posting the photos. The mosaic floor is like seeing furniture.
ReplyDeletePoignant. I love the last picture!
ReplyDeleteOh I'm glad you found the entrance to cellars, and it was safe enough to walk above them...or their remains. Loved the patterns that remain.
ReplyDeleteThe mosaic floor is lovely. Imagine what the rest of the house must have been like.
ReplyDeleteThe Heaven-inspired Gothic style is light and airy. This massive, Mammon created defense edifice I would rename Hohenzollern Preussisch!
ReplyDeleteoh I wish I could see it in action as it would've been back in the day.
ReplyDeleteI lived in the North Lodge from birth to 7 years, leaving around 1986/87, spent many days exploring the ruins of the mansion, plenty of strange things happening in the surrounding woodland, I remember being able to to get into the cellars and exploring areas which are now uneccesable. I beleieve at one point my dad burried his old Morris Minor in the grounds.
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