Fearnville House on Dibb Lane

Bunkers, shelters and other buildings
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TheUrbanDivision
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon 18 Jul, 2016 10:00 am

Re: Fearnville House on Dibb Lane

Post by TheUrbanDivision »

I know that it's now been 5 years since this thread was last active (god doesn't time fly!) but in this time the plans for the restoration of Fearnville hall have seemingly fallen through and it remains more dilapidated and in ruin than ever, so I thought that if anyone is still paying attention, I would update you all.

The hall itself was abandoned in 1993 or thereabouts, having been left derelict in the 1970s before being converted into 5 separate flats. The council evicted the residents, boarded up the building and it has been left ever since, despite numerous plans in 2004, 2009 and 2012 to convert it. While the double sheeted blockades remain very sturdy in most places, natural decay has brought about the collapse of the one leading onto the bathroom window. However, probably due to the sheer amount of time the building has been secure, this has presumably escaped the attention of most local vandals as the interior of the house is practically untouched. Graffiti remains around the perimeter of the house, however it is old and there seems to be no drastic changes to the exterior from back in 2011 as shown in Brunel's photos. The ground is even more overgrown and the only way of getting in is a pathway between 54 and 56 Dibb lane which in turn has been blocked off by an ever-more unsturdy wooden board. The gateposts mentioned earlier in the thread are in fact connected to the house as they would have led onto a pathway which carried on to the left into the grounds, at this point through the houses on Dibb lane, which back then would not have existed. Upon further inspection on google maps (get me with the first hand sources), I've determined that there were two more entrances to the grounds but theses are now completely blocked off by an obstacle house, or a heavy amount of barbed wire.

The interior is very dilapidated and very unstable, but not through vandalism as there is not graffiti at all inside the building and no signs of modern day littering, despite the vast amounts of fly tipping in the outside grounds. The residents must have left in a hurry though as there is still much furniture and clocks etc dotted around in what would have been the separate apartments amongst the now skeletal pigeons (well, I'm assuming they're pigeons). After a look around the ground floor, I came to the conclusion that it is extremely unsafe, what with there being at least four areas where the floor has caved into the basement. There is no sign of how to access the basement or some of the other corner of the house as the council appears to have left many of the separate doors on the inside bolted shut too, perhaps to the other apartments. From the only available access point, the only apparent places I could access were the bathroom and two apartments alongside the stairs. Many cupboards had also caved in as had the ceiling in what I'm presuming was a sitting room. The ceiling in this area had completely collapsed, and under the weight of two floors on top of it, the ground floor had deteriorated too, leaving a clear run through from the roof joists to the basement floor and the foundations. The upstairs was also extremely unsafe, with many areas having fallen into ruin leaving only floorboards. This was coupled with a very jitterish explorer (step forward, me) and a resident family of pigeons in the roof too, meaning I didn't stay long up there for fear of potentially falling through the floor, or, even worse, getting caught. So I packed up my things and left, though obviously with the intention of returning someday, but not just yet, I think.

*Just as a little disclaimer* I made my trip towards the front end of June, so now a month and a half has passed, please forgive me if my information is out of date (for example if another floor has caved in somewhere). I also do not enter these places to vandalise, cause trouble or any other illegal stuff, whatever that may be. I enter these places as I like to take pictures, videos and document them as that is what I love to do and I like to admire these buildings whether they are maintained in their old state or are a shadow of their former glory. I WOULD ALSO ACTIVELY DISCOURAGE TRESPASSING AND OTHER FORMS OF FORCED ENTRY TO THESE PLACES DUE TO THE HAZARD THEY POSE, AND WHILE THERE MAY BE NO SIGNS, I ALSO GUESS THAT IN THIS PARTICULAR BUILDING THERE MAY BE A SERIOUS ASBESTOS DANGER POSED. I enter knowing the risk and would take all the blame if caught so I would highly recommend not to replicate my stupidity. (Sorry if you know all this and I am boring you but it occurs to me that this is the decent thing to do)

Thanks for reading, sorry if I've bored you.

oostevens
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon 25 Jul, 2016 12:37 am

Re: Fearnville House on Dibb Lane

Post by oostevens »

Did you get any good pics we can see? This Fearnville house is pretty much behind my back yard and I would love to see what it looks like but know it's not a safe place to go

TheUrbanDivision
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon 18 Jul, 2016 10:00 am

Re: Fearnville House on Dibb Lane

Post by TheUrbanDivision »

oostevens wrote:Did you get any good pics we can see? This Fearnville house is pretty much behind my back yard and I would love to see what it looks like but know it's not a safe place to go
I do have some pictures but I would have to go through them an decide which ones are 'worthy' as a lot of them wouldn't be the best in terms of showing off the house itself, for example the state of the floor and I don't have many good exterior shots but I'll see what I can do. I could potentially have them up by this evening.

TheUrbanDivision
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon 18 Jul, 2016 10:00 am

Re: Fearnville House on Dibb Lane

Post by TheUrbanDivision »

Sorry I couldn't get them on that day and then went on holiday the next day but here they are, sorry about the quality as they don't necessarily show off that much of the building itself.
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Bathroom__1471164378_81.129.153.90.jpg
Bathroom__1471164378_81.129.153.90.jpg (15.86 KiB) Viewed 6549 times
Missing Floor And Ceiling__1471164038_81.129.153.90.jpg
Missing Floor And Ceiling__1471164038_81.129.153.90.jpg (14.71 KiB) Viewed 6549 times
Stairs 1 - Copy__1471163655_81.129.153.90.png
Stairs 1 - Copy__1471163655_81.129.153.90.png (190.86 KiB) Viewed 6549 times

TheUrbanDivision
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon 18 Jul, 2016 10:00 am

Re: Fearnville House on Dibb Lane

Post by TheUrbanDivision »

Here are some more, hope they came out ok! (This one includes the gateposts mentioned earlier)
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Gateposts__1471164867_81.129.153.90.jpg
Gateposts__1471164867_81.129.153.90.jpg (20.19 KiB) Viewed 6551 times
Collapsed Roof__1471164474_81.129.153.90.jpg
Collapsed Roof__1471164474_81.129.153.90.jpg (17.23 KiB) Viewed 6551 times
Floor__1471164761_81.129.153.90.jpg
Floor__1471164761_81.129.153.90.jpg (20.73 KiB) Viewed 6551 times

jma
Posts: 496
Joined: Fri 05 Aug, 2016 3:38 pm

Re:

Post by jma »

The Parksider wrote: ... Dib Lane Leeds 8 is ...
I've come to this thread late in the day, having been attracted to the forum by the thread on police collar numbers.

I think The Parksider was the first to use the correct spelling (one b rather than two) and the two spellings seem to have been used interchangeably subsequently. It's still mis-spelt on the thread title.

Does it matter? Well, nearly thirty years ago now, I worked for a few years in the West Yorkshire police control room which received 999 calls for the whole county and for reasons too complicated to bother with here was in the middle of Bradford. We had a new computerised "command and control" system which was more trouble than help. Address details of incidents had to be entered very accurately or else it would reject it. None of the modern "sounds like" technology where the computer can give helpful suggestions. Remember, we are talking about 999 calls when the caller may be any combination of frightened, injured, out of breath, etc., and if it's not at their home address, have little idea of the precise details of their whereabouts, even less the correct spelling. No mobile phones then, of course, and they often assumed they were speaking to someone in a local police station. ("If you look out of the window you can nearly see me. Sorry, I'm not at Gipton, I'm in the middle of Bradford....")

Dib Lane, Leeds used to be a frequent location for serious crashes and more besides. Type in Dibb Lane, and the computer would be sending it to the Horsforth local control room, where they could only pass it on. A further complication was that if it was an emergency, the computer was programmed to stop logs being passed to-and-fro before somebody took responsibility for it. Us Leeds Loiners were fairly rare in the middle of Bradford, but we were able to come to the rescue with the correct spelling. We, in our turn, were helped with the Bradford spellings by a room full of whatever they call people from Bradford.

With apologies for sidetracking the main thread. And for anybody who worries about these things, I'm sure modern computers are much more user-friendly. But just in case, if anybody exploring as a result of this thread needs to call 999, remember, it's Dib Lane. The call taker may be in somewhere much further away than Bradford, these days.

TheUrbanDivision
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon 18 Jul, 2016 10:00 am

Re: Fearnville House on Dibb Lane

Post by TheUrbanDivision »

I made my return yesterday and while I may now be obsessing on this house a tiny bit, I did manage to get some good shots of the outside and the upstairs so here they are
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Front Door-min.JPG
Front Door-min.JPG (94.32 KiB) Viewed 6489 times
Entrance-min.JPG
Entrance-min.JPG (76.19 KiB) Viewed 6489 times
Back Shot-min.JPG
Back Shot-min.JPG (83.09 KiB) Viewed 6489 times

TheUrbanDivision
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon 18 Jul, 2016 10:00 am

Re: Fearnville House on Dibb Lane

Post by TheUrbanDivision »

Here are some more...
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Semi Circle-min.JPG
Semi Circle-min.JPG (114.25 KiB) Viewed 6492 times
Roof Beams-min.JPG
Roof Beams-min.JPG (68.32 KiB) Viewed 6492 times
Frontal Shot-min.JPG
Frontal Shot-min.JPG (86.2 KiB) Viewed 6492 times

TheUrbanDivision
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon 18 Jul, 2016 10:00 am

Re: Fearnville House on Dibb Lane

Post by TheUrbanDivision »

And finally here is the only way of getting around upstairs, a route I decided not to risk!
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Upstairs Beam-min.JPG
Upstairs Beam-min.JPG (85.99 KiB) Viewed 6494 times

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Leodian
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Re: Fearnville House on Dibb Lane

Post by Leodian »

It looks like it used to be a fine building so it is sad that it has fallen into ruin. I wonder why it has been left unoccupied for so long and why it was allowed to deteriorate so badly :?:.
A rainbow is a ribbon that Nature puts on when she washes her hair.

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