Calke Abbey in Derbyshire has the sense of a place that was once a hive of activity, but that has since diminished almost to the point of being on the verge of collapse in places. What’s more it’s kept that way deliberately by the National Trust, repaired but not restored. As such, it has the feel of a place that has been little touched in over a century and it is a veritable photographic gold mine as you walk from the ground floor to the upper floor moving progressively from dishevelment to decay.
Find a window in one of the many small rooms and almost inevitably there will be something worth photographing. This really is a place to photograph details, the dilapidated state of the upstairs rooms being particularly photogenic, some piled with items, though the huge collection of taxidermy is probably not to everyone’s taste, but it is a reflection of 19th century values.
Light, while hard to find at times, does seep through the shuttered windows and every now and then falls on an exquisite piece of furniture or one of the many hundreds of objects that litter the house or something left abandoned many, many years ago.
