Fancy getting away from it all? Railway workers cottage for sale

[big jim]

I think you’d have to be a special kind of crazy to buy this house, I noticed the for sale sign when I passed it on Friday 

 

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/125484971#/
 

one, for the location as it has no vehicular access and two, for the price given it’s in need of total restoration

 

 

 

Edited August 13, 2022 by big jim

[skipepsi]

It has a parking space apparently...

[Cowley 47521]

That’s a ridiculous amount of money for the condition of the property.

I’m only slightly tempted…

[big jim]

8 hours ago, Cowley 47521 said:

That’s a ridiculous amount of money for the condition of the property.

I’m only slightly tempted…

I can see the potential of it as an air B+B or packhouse, even a coffee stop on the trail but how on earth would you get the materials needed to do the renovations, even furniture once completed up to the house while doing it, I can see you can pay £125 p/a for vehicular access so I assume that’s over the fields in a quad or 4x4 by arrangement to the farmer?

 

It certainly looks stunning in the pics and on a sunny day like when I passed by on Friday but wouldn’t fancy it in Winter 

 

with no mains utilities at least you wouldn’t have to worry about rising energy costs! 
 

it appears to be haunted too….

 

 

Edited August 14, 2022 by big jim

[ejstubbs]

1 hour ago, big jim said:

I can see you can pay £125 p/a for vehicular access so I assume that’s over the fields in a quad or 4x4 by arrangement to the farmer?

 

Quad or 4x4?  Maybe in winter, but there's a perfectly good gravel track that goes past the front door.  It looks no worse than - in fact in quite a bit better than - the one that we used to drive down to get to the family's holiday cottage in Pembrokeshire when I was a kid  That had a strip of grass running down the middle, and well vegetated stone and earth banks on each side.  I'm not sure it was ever actually maintained as such, beyond some of the vegetation being cut back from time to time.  Cars used back then included a Peugeot 404 Familiale, Fiat 500D, Austin Maxi 1800, Austin 1100, Hillman Hunter estate, Mk 1 Ford Fiesta 950 and Austin Allegro 1300*.  None of them exactly rufty-tufty cross-country vehicles.

 

I suspect the £125pa is indeed a contribution towards the maintenance costs of the track by the landowner/tenant.

 

I agree that the asking price seems a bit 'toppy' given the amount of work required and the lack of any services.  Then again, being "off grid" is quite trendy these days.  (The chimney stack obstructing the south-facing roof aspect might be a bit of an issue for installing solar PV though.)

 

* Yes, the one with the "square" (or as BL called it, "quartic") steering wheel.  I drove that car quite a lot when I was older, and I never really understood the hilarity this feature seemed to cause.  I suspect it mostly came from people who'd never driven one, and quite possibly had never even seen one, but just thought that the idea of a square wheel was funny.  It worked perfectly well for my Mum (whose car it was), me and my siblings.

[RichardT]

1 hour ago, ejstubbs said:

agree that the asking price seems a bit 'toppy' given the amount of work required and the lack of any services.  

I’m inclined to agree but then again, it’s an actually-existing building inside the national park, in an area that you wouldn’t get planning permission for a new dwelling. If you spent £200k on it you’d have a very valuable holiday let/bunkhouse.  The “4x4 only” restriction on the access track is, I suspect, the landowner covering themselves: that’s the access road to the signalbox. In any case, if you lived up there odds are you *would* have a Land Rover or other similar 4x4. I can see a well-heeled builder with the right connections negotiating hard on this one and getting a bargain.  (Whilst simultaneously negotiating to sell the restoration story to “Grand Designs” or George Clark’s production company.)

 

Richard T

[big jim]

If I bought it I’d ‘borrow’ a flat wagon and loco from work, get a vstp in, hire a container and fill it with building supplies and drop it into blea moor loop to unload over the wall! 

[Jeremy Cumberland]

22 minutes ago, RichardT said:

I’m inclined to agree but then again, it’s an actually-existing building inside the national park, in an area that you wouldn’t get planning permission for a new dwelling. If you spent £200k on it you’d have a very valuable holiday let/bunkhouse.  The “4x4 only” restriction on the access track is, I suspect, the landowner covering themselves: that’s the access road to the signalbox. In any case, if you lived up there odds are you *would* have a Land Rover or other similar 4x4. I can see a well-heeled builder with the right connections negotiating hard on this one and getting a bargain.  (Whilst simultaneously negotiating to sell the restoration story to “Grand Designs” or George Clark’s production company.)

 

Richard T

The numbers don't add up to me. £200k for improvements sounds about right, but you end up spending £500k on a house that can barely be worth that amount even when renovated. It's got no land to speak of. It's got no shelter. It isn't remotely secluded with that path running past the front door. Although there are a variety of commerical opporunities, I can't see them generating more than about £20k a year, if that. Enough for someone to live on, but a pretty poor return on the investment.

 

There may well be a person with the money and to whom the lifestyle appeals, but it would have to be seen as a lifestyle choice rather than a commercial investment, I think.

[Hroth]

3 hours ago, big jim said:

 

it appears to be haunted too….

 

 

 

Its the bloke in the Fisher Hopper video tour (pic 4 in the rightmove gallery).  Someone must have been annoyed...

 

I probably know why his ghostly image appears, but its pretty dull...)

 

[big jim]

Yeah I could see it was the video bloke but can’t work out why his ghostly image is there

[RichardT]

4 hours ago, Jeremy C said:

The numbers don't add up to me. £200k for improvements sounds about right, but you end up spending £500k on a house that can barely be worth that…

I suspect that you’re right, although I doubt very much if it will sell for anything like the advertised price.
 

I’m moving into the realms of speculation here, but I wonder if this is a distress sale by a previous restorer. Some bits and bobs of building materials are visible in some of the photos, and (although it’s difficult to tell from the estate agent photos) it looks possible that the roof has - sensibly - already been repaired and brought up to a good standard as the first job.  If so that’s one of the biggest costs already sunk, and the seller may be trying to recover that cost with an unrealistically high selling price (which unfortunately isn’t how house sales work!)

 

Realistically this is beyond a keen amateur, but a little bit of me thinks that someone with direct access to trade skills and trade prices, and who takes an aggressive approach to negotiations, might be able to make a go of this as a project.  After all, it’s only 25 mins walk from a station with direct trains to Leeds or Carlisle - it’s practically commuterland!😆

 

My main worry would actually be that £125 pa charge for vehicular access.  That’s far too low to be a maintenance contribution - it sounds more like a wayleave payment. Depending on who the landowner is - Network Rail? The Ingleborough Estate?? - and their attitude to inflation, that could rapidly become a ransom payment. 

 

I’m intrigued - I think I’ll take a little run up there after next week’s thunderstorms have passed.

 

Richard T

Edited August 14, 2022 by RichardT
Punctuation

[spamcan61]

11 minutes ago, RichardT said:

I suspect that you’re right, although I doubt very much if it will sell for anything like the advertised price.
 

I’m moving into the realms of speculation here, but I wonder if this is a distress sale by a previous restorer. Some bits and bobs of building materials are visible in some of the photos, and (although it’s difficult to tell from the estate agent photos) it looks possible that the roof has - sensibly - already been repaired and brought up to a good standard as the first job.  If so that’s one of the biggest costs already sunk, and the seller may be trying to recover that cost with an unrealistically high selling price (which unfortunately isn’t how house sales work!)

 

Realistically this is beyond a keen amateur, but a little bit of me thinks that someone with direct access to trade skills and trade prices, and who takes an aggressive approach to negotiations, might be able to make a go of this as a project.  After all, it’s only 25 mins walk from a station with direct trains to Leeds or Carlisle - it’s practically commuterland!😆

 

My main worry would actually be that £125 pa charge for vehicular access.  That’s far too low to be a maintenance contribution - it sounds more like a wayleave payment. Depending on who the landowner is - Network Rail? The Ingleborough Estate?? - and their attitude to inflation, that could rapidly become a ransom payment. 

 

I’m intrigued - I think I’ll take a little run up there after next week’s thunderstorms have passed.

 

Richard T

The internal brickwork looks pretty grim in photo number 10, presumably no cavity wall there.

[Nova Scotian]

48 minutes ago, RichardT said:

I suspect that you’re right, although I doubt very much if it will sell for anything like the advertised price.
 

I’m moving into the realms of speculation here, but I wonder if this is a distress sale by a previous restorer. Some bits and bobs of building materials are visible in some of the photos, and (although it’s difficult to tell from the estate agent photos) it looks possible that the roof has - sensibly - already been repaired and brought up to a good standard as the first job.  If so that’s one of the biggest costs already sunk, and the seller may be trying to recover that cost with an unrealistically high selling price (which unfortunately isn’t how house sales work!)

 

Realistically this is beyond a keen amateur, but a little bit of me thinks that someone with direct access to trade skills and trade prices, and who takes an aggressive approach to negotiations, might be able to make a go of this as a project.  After all, it’s only 25 mins walk from a station with direct trains to Leeds or Carlisle - it’s practically commuterland!😆

 

My main worry would actually be that £125 pa charge for vehicular access.  That’s far too low to be a maintenance contribution - it sounds more like a wayleave payment. Depending on who the landowner is - Network Rail? The Ingleborough Estate?? - and their attitude to inflation, that could rapidly become a ransom payment. 

 

I’m intrigued - I think I’ll take a little run up there after next week’s thunderstorms have passed.

 

Richard T

Yep - newer roof and looks like newer windows (PVC double glazed in many rooms). However the walls and floors are pretty rotten and definitely out of true. It'd be a huge amount of work to set it all right - and you'd want to set up a wall cavity to insulate it, which will eat into that interior room. I was quite excited, then started looking through it... 300k for it in that shape is extremely hopeful.

[Jeremy Cumberland]

37 minutes ago, spamcan61 said:

The internal brickwork looks pretty grim in photo number 10, presumably no cavity wall there.

I think it is a cavity wall. All the brickwork I can see looks to be stretcher bond, and the wall is certainly not one brick thick. The damp course (assuming there was one) appears to have failed, but it doesn't look too bad (although I might be rather worried about the ground floor joists). I'm guessing that the house is early 20th century. It is shown on the 1912 plan (see SCRCA link below).

 

There are a couple of photographs of the Blea Moor community when it was rather larger on the SCRCA website: https://scrca.foscl.org.uk/location-summaries/structure-248550. Here's one of them.

 

There's scaffolding round the end of the house in this 2003 view:

http://www.britishrailways.net/sc/images/bleamoor_57304.html

 

[Wheatley]

The access path is not owned by Network Rail, when it was one of my signalboxes the signalmen parked near Ribblehead Viaduct and walked up the 3 Peaks path to get to the box. I suspect they still do, the path looks much more robust than when I used to walk it twice a week but I wouldn't take my car up it.

 

I don't think the house had windows the last time I saw it, and it certainly didn't have a fitted(ish) kitchen, so someone has done a lot of work on it even if they haven't finished. 

[DLT]

There is this news report from 2010:  https://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/5001402.yorkshire-dales-planners-order-a-clean-up-at-isolated-beauty-spot-cottage/

[RichardT]

And the follow-up, several months later (spoiler alert - he cleaned the place up):

https://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/8315962.yorkshire-dales-eyesore-house-cleaned-up/

 

Interestingly, the article mentions “landscaping the area” and “creating a garden” (neither of which ever seem to have happened) with the implied approval of the national park authority, so presumably the house comes with a chunk of land…

 

RichardT

[johnofwessex]

Presumably there must be/have been some sort of arrangement for power and water.

 

What does the signal box do?

[Jeremy Cumberland]

53 minutes ago, johnofwessex said:

Presumably there must be/have been some sort of arrangement for power and water.

 

There isn't any of either. From the linked RightMove page:

Quote

There are no mains services available. When the property was last inhabited, the following arrangements were in place: electricity generation via a windmill and generator; Calor Gas cylinders for cooking; multi-fuel stove for heat; septic tank drainage (now disconnected) and water was transported via a trailer.

 

[Hroth]

On 14/08/2022 at 13:13, Hroth said:

 

Its the bloke in the Fisher Hopper video tour (pic 4 in the rightmove gallery).  Someone must have been annoyed...

 

I probably know why his ghostly image appears, but its pretty dull...)

 

 

On 14/08/2022 at 13:21, big jim said:

Yeah I could see it was the video bloke but can’t work out why his ghostly image is there

 

The photographer set the shot up and videoguy wandered across the shot as the very slow exposure was made.  I would think the interior would be pretty dark and even with a high ISO setting, the shutter speed would be slow enough to capture a ghostly image of a careless person ambling past!

 

It could have been done intentionally as a gag.

 

Just be glad it wasn't in light enhancing goggles green as favoured by ghost-hunting programmes on the digital TV channels...

 

Edited August 15, 2022 by Hroth
Extra thort

[Reorte]

15 hours ago, johnofwessex said:

Presumably there must be/have been some sort of arrangement for power and water.

 

What does the signal box do?

Water-wise it was dropped off by the first train of the day, might well still be. Not sure where it gets power from, but there must be some sort of supply (unless a solar panel and batteries are sufficient). Most of the signals are mechanical but I assume are electrically lit (I'm assuming there aren't any oil lamp lit signals left now, always interested to be proven wrong though!)

Edited August 16, 2022 by Reorte

[RichardT]

Network Rail might have laid in power to the box by now, but that won’t be available to the house. However, if it’s a national grid supply, its proximity *might* slightly reduce the huge cost any buyer would have to pay for connection to the mains.

 

Richard T

 

 

[Bernard Lamb]

I think that the key point for anybody who might be interested, even at a much more reaistic price, is that the other houses have been demolished. I might be reading way to much into it, but given what has been published about the chap who lived there I would be very wary at a fraction of the price. Looking at it as a site with some form of planning permission for a residential property might be the best option. 

Bernard

[Reorte]

6 minutes ago, Bernard Lamb said:

I think that the key point for anybody who might be interested, even at a much more reaistic price, is that the other houses have been demolished. I might be reading way to much into it, but given what has been published about the chap who lived there I would be very wary at a fraction of the price. Looking at it as a site with some form of planning permission for a residential property might be the best option.

 

It's in the middle of a national park, would you get any planning permission for doing anything to it, other than very minor alterations?

[Bernard Lamb]

6 hours ago, Reorte said:

 

It's in the middle of a national park, would you get any planning permission for doing anything to it, other than very minor alterations?

That is why I wrote "some form of planning permisssion." It would need checking out before getting too involved. I know of  couple of cases where a derelict property has been virtually rebuilt as technically it was a dwelling. However they were both some time ago. As the blurb mentions conversion to various types of use I presume that the information is correct and the estate agent has checked.

Bernard