Back in 2017 en route from one place to another, we stumbled upon a house that had clearly been lost to time. Jurassic park-esque foliage had worked its way onto the roof and walls in such a way that it had to have been abandoned for at least a good decade. The grounds were unkempt and the timber fences rotten, with a lonely disused bird box at the front gate. The only real clue to the property was a hand-written note on the window that simply read ‘The Dial House – Taylor’.
Inside was a clear indication that the final years of the inhabitants were spent hoarding masses of items, the majority of which were magazines and newspapers. Nothing appeared to have come from the 21st century, hinting at the possibility of the property having stood derelict for much longer than first thought. Very few rooms gave any real indication of how they were used, bar the obvious kitchen. Hoarders syndrome often relegates the sufferer to living in extreme disorder – often to just a single room surrounded by their inability to free themselves from their possessions. This was almost certainly someone living alone.
That’s generally where our observations end on this one – rather than speculate or point fingers, the best thing to do here is simply share how the house existed in silence for it’s final years. Out of respect for it’s inhabitants, I’d rather not try to strain any further story from what was left behind. The only real indication of the lives lived inside these walls are the motoring and equestrian themed literature. Something that has been notorious throughout recent history in these rural parts of the world. At least, that is until the culture in Cheshire began to shift. The final few images of the gallery show what happened to the home in the years that followed our visit. The original Dial house was demolished, and in it’s place a replica of a rural converted barn. A strange concept, and one that would perhaps fool onlookers who were non the wiser as to the fact that a barn never actually existed to begin with. The adjacent fields used for grazing of horses rather than agriculture.
The (new) Dial House was listed at auction not too long ago with a guide price of up to 1.5 million. It’s undoubtedly a beautiful home, yet it begs the question – has rural Cheshire been claimed by an entirely new class of society? With the struggles that farmers are having, more and more of our green space is being sold to developers, and more often than not when this happens the new homes are sold at a premium for their rural location. Individual plots such as this one provide an idyllic setting for an executive home, away from the bustle of busy towns and villages. But what was it that prevented this pattern from occurring in the past? Especially during times when you might even argue the economy was stronger. Wealth hasn’t suddenly popped up from nowhere – the divide between classes has only grown bigger.
What we are witnessing here then is the remnants of ‘the old rural’ lifestyle. When it didn’t necessarily require wealth to live among the fields. Owning a horse or a classic car was just a product of where you lived, rather than where you stood in society. The worry is that our rural communities are now increasingly becoming a retreat for the wealthy, and less and less for the agricultural and the eccentric. The worrying prospect for the future is that neither of those things are likely to be passed on to new generations. Agriculture, wealth and eccentricity are hard to imagine when farming is being pushed to the limit of survival, whilst house prices continue to rise far beyond the average wage. What will the places that stand alongside our country lanes look like in another few decades? The (old) Dial House then was probably one of the last of it’s kind. Either that, or we might be told to expect the pattern to come full circle, and Dial House's replacement to one day find itself cluttered with a lifetime of unorganised possessions..
The following images show the house and the items left behind exactly how they were found, followed by two promotional images, not mine, from the new house’s most recent sale.
