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Lotus Hall aka Cuckoo Hall
Visited with: Venustas, Shane & Miz Firestorm
Visit date: January 2015
Please Note: Entry is always through an open access point and not by forcing our way in….. We are explorers, not vandals.
My Visit
My first Urbex trip of 2015 and it started out like many more from 2014 with my phone alarm waking me up at 03:30 AM! 10 minutes later after making a flask of coffee I was in the car and on my way to meet Shane and then to pick up Alex. Before making our way to Lotus Hall we was to meet up with Klare at a set point and then head to the location.
At around 07:15 we parked up the car and started the walk to the manor house. With the combination of the bad weather and the dark mornings at this time year it was fairly straight forward. We never spotted a soul but made sure we kept hidden using the tree lines and darkness to our advantage. After around 30 minutes Lotus Hall started to show itself though the trees and murky light.
After standing at the edge of the grounds for a few minutes taking in the sight of this beautiful Manor we headed to the entry point, 5 minutes later we was in.
Now this place is huge and once you get inside it turns into a maze of rooms and corridors. A good chunk of this place however is made up on small bedrooms which I am guessing is from its time as a boarding school for girls. We knew this was the case and started to look for the area of the Manor that we had got up at silly O'Clock to photograph. After what seemed a good while and a few head scratching moments later were it felt like we was going around in circles we finally spotted the main stairs through a door window, brilliant we have found it. As we pulled the door handle however, it was locked! A little disheartened but far from beaten we kept looking for another way in, minutes later we found it.
I always make sure to get the main areas photographed first just in case we get rumbled and walked off the site and for me it was the staircase. Alex was already at the top of the stairs so I waited for him to get the shots he wanted and followed him down taking my shots whilst trying not to get in each others way. I have explored with Alex a good amount of times now so we know how each other works and we managed to get what we needed without any problems.
Beautiful right? I think so....
With the photos taken that I really wanted in the collection I headed off to look around at what else Lotus Hall had to show me.
This to me looked like the main foyer and from other images I have seen there was some very fine tables and chairs in here at some point.
Now this next room I call the Ballroom as it just gave me the feeling that many extravagant parties would have been held in here, whether it is a ballroom or not I am unsure.
Here is a closer look at the ceiling taken from the balcony.
Next up was the library, stripped clean apart from a few units and the fireplace. If you look above the fireplace you will see two green squares. At one time there was two ornate wooden carved panels in those squares given to the owners by Queen Victoria, however they have been stolen.
Next up had to be the most colourful room in the manor. Dubbed accordingly as the 'Red Room', How original I hear you say... Well I am a simple kind of guy!
My final image for this report is a room that looks like at some point renovation had been started but seems to have stopped.
More images available on flickr
The images above are just a small selection of the images I have edited. I will be adding lots more photos of Lotus Hall aka Cuckoo Hall on my Flickr page which can be found here, https://www.flickr.com/photos/119757413@N07/
Final thoughts
So was Lotus Hall aka Cuckoo Hall worth the early start? Was it worth the muddy, dark and wet walk to get to the Manor? Was it worth wandering around a maze of corridors scratching our heads in frustration trying to find the main area? The simple answer is YES and I would do it all again as I feel that Lotus Hall has much more to show me.
All in a brilliant location and a fantastic morning spent exploring with a great group of people.
What a start for my exploring in 2015!
Thanks for reading,
Dugie
Visited with: Venustas, Shane & Miz Firestorm
Visit date: January 2015
Please Note: Entry is always through an open access point and not by forcing our way in….. We are explorers, not vandals.
My Visit
My first Urbex trip of 2015 and it started out like many more from 2014 with my phone alarm waking me up at 03:30 AM! 10 minutes later after making a flask of coffee I was in the car and on my way to meet Shane and then to pick up Alex. Before making our way to Lotus Hall we was to meet up with Klare at a set point and then head to the location.
At around 07:15 we parked up the car and started the walk to the manor house. With the combination of the bad weather and the dark mornings at this time year it was fairly straight forward. We never spotted a soul but made sure we kept hidden using the tree lines and darkness to our advantage. After around 30 minutes Lotus Hall started to show itself though the trees and murky light.
After standing at the edge of the grounds for a few minutes taking in the sight of this beautiful Manor we headed to the entry point, 5 minutes later we was in.
Now this place is huge and once you get inside it turns into a maze of rooms and corridors. A good chunk of this place however is made up on small bedrooms which I am guessing is from its time as a boarding school for girls. We knew this was the case and started to look for the area of the Manor that we had got up at silly O'Clock to photograph. After what seemed a good while and a few head scratching moments later were it felt like we was going around in circles we finally spotted the main stairs through a door window, brilliant we have found it. As we pulled the door handle however, it was locked! A little disheartened but far from beaten we kept looking for another way in, minutes later we found it.
I always make sure to get the main areas photographed first just in case we get rumbled and walked off the site and for me it was the staircase. Alex was already at the top of the stairs so I waited for him to get the shots he wanted and followed him down taking my shots whilst trying not to get in each others way. I have explored with Alex a good amount of times now so we know how each other works and we managed to get what we needed without any problems.
Beautiful right? I think so....
With the photos taken that I really wanted in the collection I headed off to look around at what else Lotus Hall had to show me.
This to me looked like the main foyer and from other images I have seen there was some very fine tables and chairs in here at some point.
Now this next room I call the Ballroom as it just gave me the feeling that many extravagant parties would have been held in here, whether it is a ballroom or not I am unsure.
Here is a closer look at the ceiling taken from the balcony.
Next up was the library, stripped clean apart from a few units and the fireplace. If you look above the fireplace you will see two green squares. At one time there was two ornate wooden carved panels in those squares given to the owners by Queen Victoria, however they have been stolen.
Next up had to be the most colourful room in the manor. Dubbed accordingly as the 'Red Room', How original I hear you say... Well I am a simple kind of guy!
My final image for this report is a room that looks like at some point renovation had been started but seems to have stopped.
More images available on flickr
The images above are just a small selection of the images I have edited. I will be adding lots more photos of Lotus Hall aka Cuckoo Hall on my Flickr page which can be found here, https://www.flickr.com/photos/119757413@N07/
Final thoughts
So was Lotus Hall aka Cuckoo Hall worth the early start? Was it worth the muddy, dark and wet walk to get to the Manor? Was it worth wandering around a maze of corridors scratching our heads in frustration trying to find the main area? The simple answer is YES and I would do it all again as I feel that Lotus Hall has much more to show me.
All in a brilliant location and a fantastic morning spent exploring with a great group of people.
What a start for my exploring in 2015!
Thanks for reading,
Dugie
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