 Hello, thank you for joining me today. I am out for a walk on Stoke Common, which is just outside London It's a lovely vast common land It's run by the City of London, although it's actually in Buckinghamshire. It's a very Quite different to anywhere really. I've been it's completely flat It's a lovely place to come for a walk on a winter's day. There are some cattle grazing here I haven't actually seen any today. It's a really interesting strange landscape. Have a look here. It's all waterlogged on that side completely waterlogged yet the other side is Well, it's still waterlogged, but it's prone to fires. There's lots of heather here, which in the summer It gets very dry. You've got gorse and fracken. It all gets dry and it's prone to fires So it's very wet at this time of year, but can be the complete opposite in the summer So as we come to this crossroads here, I'm going to take you this way And we're going to head for the woods up there because what happens up there? Oh, that's a nice bench Up there the woods There's a footpath across the road and there's a rather large abandoned mansion called the Pickering So we're going to go and have a look at that because the footpath runs right through the grounds So what we're going to do I'm going to follow on up this rather waterlogged path Look how waterlogged here that this isn't supposed to be a lake. This is only, you know, less than a foot deep It's just waterlogged land, but I'm going to carry on up the track and Let's go and explore this abandoned mansion in the woods So I've just come across the road to commons over there as you can see found the Brideaway which takes us along here another very waterlogged section of woodland now We're heading in this direction. I'm just going to show you a couple of things this fence that is to protect a landfill site because What happened was people were going there on motorbikes and riding around the top of it. So That's not a fence around where we're going to and I don't really have any interest in going in there But if we walk on this side where there is no fence Into the woods we find a Rather spooky little cottage. This is like a groundsman or gardeners cottage or gate house As you can see there's a bit of a hoarding around it. There's no tiles on the roof We'll have a look in this first and then we'll continue on down the footpath to find this abandoned mansion. So Here's the cottage see how the Ceilings have fallen in it's a brilliant quite a bad state. It's a shame really because it probably was a nice house once Yeah, that's room there is it's completely falling in So look in this room There was a fireplace there once I don't know if it had an upstairs or not. I'm pretty able to work out soon by looking around a bit further If I can get into this room here, this must have been whether this was the lounge or the fort what bay window I can get through here And then we come to here Another fireplace Now we go through here That's that room. I said about where the Ceiling had fallen in and just see that box there that would have been the water tank That was probably their toilet going by where there was plumbing work And maybe this was a bedroom. So it doesn't look like it had an upstairs It looks like it was just a one bedroom bungalow or two bedrooms actually if you count that but then That might have been a kitchen. I'm not sure. So yeah, very small, but it's still been a nice little place somebody would have lived here once and I'm gonna go through get out and we'll follow the footpath form and Which will take us see if we come to here we come out front door and That's the front door. It's gonna corner porch there come through here and Get to here You can see I'm back on the road again. So That's the footpath just down there. That'll go back on to stoke common So I'm gonna do now Let you see the house from the outside what you can see of it I'm gonna retrace my footsteps and go down the footpath We're gonna go and find the picker inch and that's what I'm excited about. It is a big big Victorian mansion in the woods. It's abandoned, but the footpath just happens to go that way So let's go and find the picker inch I've just come along from the garden as cottage As I said this policy fence that's protecting the landfill site It's we're following the footpath, which takes us through here and Into what appears to be an abandoned farm yard on there That is the picker ridge which We've come to have a look at so takes us through into this abandoned farm yard And then we'll go and put off kind of goes right through the middle like this There is literally no fence between us and the house It's gonna have a little nose have a look around People have you know, I've come up in the summer. There's been children playing here You know, I've seen bird watchers Come here because it's can be a nice quiet place to watch birds I've even seen artists, you know come up here and sketched the building so it's um, you know it's well big Abandoned house first glance it kind of half reminds me a bit of 40 towers to look at and which was filmed not so far away from here They all actually filmed here. There's a abandoned lorry just over there Now here here is the front of the house. So um, should we go in have a look? The one thing I didn't do Should have bought torches with me So as we go in This would have been the ground hall you can see where The stairs would have gone up. I can hear a lot of birds it sounds Here's strange noises. I think it is just birds Mesting in the roof. You can see where the stairs have gone up now if you look here You can see that have been like a big glass window to let the light shine down all of that's gone And it's all open to the elements. I mean, I don't know what's gonna happen to this house It's been abandoned from what I understand. It's been abandoned since about 1998 it was used As offices that's interesting. Someone has put on the window. I don't know how well you can see I don't really want to go across there, but some like cobwebs and spiders So someone must have done that a Halloween that wasn't there last time I came up here What do? There's all these pigeons they make me to make me jump but I'd frighten them Here's another rather big room. It's actually not too bad. I was thinking of pitch black in here But you can see someone the floors a bit dodgy in places and there is a cellar below here So I do have to be quite careful where I walk right? Let's go through and that is Literally pitch black through there. What I think I'll do. I'll just see if there's another way around to there And if I had a torch in my hand, which I really wish I'd bought I might have tried going through there holding the camera But holding the camera and going through there might be difficult What I'm trying to do is see if we can get upstairs because there was a way of going upstairs See that's what I imagined everyone's gonna be like completely pitch black like that right this the floor looks a bit safer And there's another big room there Okay, and then get to here. I know you can't see great deal what I'm showing you So we've got another big room out the back and then I'm just trying to find my way Don't know if you can see much down this corridor, but if I can get to you in this corridor There was another set of stairs along the back. There are floors a bit better now That's where we were a moment ago where I didn't want to come across But actually look like it probably was easier. Well, I did come across now. Here we are. This is the stairs have a look at this It's not the easiest of stairs to go up anyone says to the last bit are here So There go the pigeons I'm going to have to try and climb up there somehow. It's what I'm gonna do I'm gonna try and make my way upstairs and then if I do get upstairs. I'll show you around up there Well, I've come halfway up the stairs looking at those wooden posts and they are really really slippery with all the birds poo and So sorry disappointed, but I'm not gonna try and go any further I have once when I came here once before I did manage to go up there I'm not gonna do it today. So what I'm gonna do will go outside and we'll just have a look around the site outside Oh, this is the rather broken staircase, which I've managed to find my way halfway up So let's get let's get outside and have a look around grounds a bit I'm back down in the hallway. So that was as I said before the main staircase I just noticed them see the old wooden paneling they've got obviously quite heavily defeated But I quite like these these features and if we just go back into this room here, you can see the whole room pretty much and Has got this wooden paneling, but as you can see it's all been Graffited over so what we'll do now kind of look around the grounds So I guess I don't know too much about this place other than well, it's the obvious things It's the country house Victorian. Well, look at that. I'm just see down into the cellar. It's quite deep going in there Couldn't find any obvious way down to the cellar. So I'm gonna come out here. This isn't the front door. That's the front door Oh, yeah, look at these columns and they made us fire the glass and see how they've broken and Collapsed really they are just a metal column. So yeah, it was been abandoned since about 1998 Obviously was a country house once They've been quite a nice country house. That's interesting. There's another drive Going off up there. So whether that was the original drive where this I don't know how on earth is Laurie Got here But yeah, so you can see it's really been trashed this place. It's just shame I just like to come and sort of see these places for what they are But have a look at that I wouldn't go as far saying it's beyond saving but I'd say it needs a lot of work and you know to make it Usable again. The other thing is it's quite remote. It's a bit, you know far from anywhere It's not really near any big towns, but you know would have been a really nice house I wonder if that was an extension because So doesn't fit in with the rest of the building so I would guess they probably built that on later, but Not a hundred percent sure on that one So we come around the back Interesting, maybe that's how you get into the into the cellars That there's no door but that looks like that was the boiler room and it looks like there was some bills here have actually been demolished Not just with people messing about but you know properly demolished Ruins of walls, but yeah, I assume that was the boiler room. That's some Signed our way around here. We'll go and have a look at the farm First and then we'll continue on down the footpath. So there's the farm Somewhere else over there's pretty much the bird watcher. I've come up here a few times over here And I've always have seen other people about so I kind of Don't feel scared coming here. You may have seen I did a video once before I called it something sinister in Denner Marsh wood Now it's just a footpath for a woodland. I always felt a bit kind of something a bit odd about that place But I don't feel it here. I just feel quite Content and safe when I'm wandering around here. So we come down here There's no mistaking the main Pickery house In its white rendered house behind us, but here look at this. There's a very Ruins a bit like the gardener's cottage. This one had an upstairs very sort of ruined house. I wonder if I can get into it Bushes are objecting. I've got a vine All caught up in me so I can get that off and we get there we go got it off So I'm in a very very derelict building That looks like that was the stairs I got through here though Yeah, that's the under stairs covered. I know you can't see it's going to artists This is some yeah Room and table Someone's on the subway here recently So where's that? Let's take me out the back and I'm now in the farm. So perhaps that was the farmers Cottage maybe and then here Whether that's more farm cottages And then there's some more barns This is the footpath that runs right through the middle of the site footpath You can see runs across here We came up there Whether we can go in here. I'm not sure But we'll have a look See what we can see so It's been quite exciting afternoon really. I don't do a lot of them looking around derelict places But when you've got a footpath that is run right through the middle of the site I thought why not? There's the pickerage Again, let's go cross here cross here and Yeah, this is definitely a farm derelict farm building let's go Round there's no cars or anything like that on site sometimes use fine footpaths that run for abandoned farms. There'll be a car This is all concrete this but it's a sloping floor maybe If they kept some I'm not sure I was guess when they washed the floor for all the water to run out to come out the back here It's in quite a state on this side. It's a rubble everywhere So let's just continue around here then we'll pick up the footpath And that would be the end of this explore. I don't know if we can get into those buildings There and whether there's any floor in them. There's clearly no ceiling or roof on them So, yeah, I'm not sure about those ones That's just I think I'll do now. I'm just gonna follow the footpath out out the site So it's been like I said, I've had quite a fun afternoon looking around here I'm just trying to think back to its glory days or when it was a Victorian house With a farm attached it probably had, you know, very attractive gardens out over there Yeah, it's probably owned by a fairly rich family. It's not like a massive stately home but it's You know, it'd have been a rich family Who would have lived here? So, you know, it's It's a shame really it's ended up like this So I think I'm gonna leave the site now and continue on with my walk down a public footpath So, um, hope you enjoyed this video. Thank you very much for watching Please do feel free to like share comment and subscribe And um, with one final view of the Pickering. Thank you very much for watching