Tonedale Mills and Tannery, Somerset, England.

 

Casa de Campo, Farmhouse, Orgiva to Lanjaron Road, Las Alpujarras, Spain.

Here is a common view in the reddening, sun-sore fields of the Sierra Nevada farmland – a once beautiful farm building now decaying into the ground, melting like the Dali inspired clocks as society changes, again.

I climbed to the top of the roof structure and watched the sun set whilst my new exploring friend, Mango, toured the different levels beneath us. The red bricks dissolved into the red sun as I left here feeling very content; despite it being another sad story of capitalism’s impact on rural Spain as traditional farming becomes lost in the rubble…

The Lost Village, Las Alpujarras, Sierra Nevada, Spain.

A rare site in most of the UK, however an eerily common occurrence over the rest of Europe and indeed the world – this is a lost village of the Alpujarras, as villages and sometimes even towns become entirely derelict, mostly due to the industries which they were grown upon becoming obsolete with new technologies and the increase of the global market becoming centralised in clear zones, or cities.

This village/town used to house the workers from the energy factory up the road however this looks largely closed down now, perhaps a computer is able to do the same job that this small community of people used to.

Not only were there around 10-20 houses left to the natural elements, but also a clear community kitchen area, playground and most impressively, a church; which had been used by an artist to create a large baby mural – there was something quite unnervingly beautiful about this village, now forever lost in the rubble…

Derelict Factory, A-44, Granada to Jaen, Spain.

In such a pale landscape this fading derelict factory, just off the A-44 Granada to Spain road, was filled with amazing colours – with every new wall providing a new canvas for some of the most stylish paintwork I have ever seen in a derelict building before including some by the favourite ‘El Nino de las Pinturas’.

This was a special find. And also one of my first proper explorations with my new pal, Mango – who took it all in his stride. A really defiant piece of eroding art…… I can’t find out any details about this place… So here it stands, lost in the rubble…

 

Casa del Pais – Rich Farmhouse, Near Huelma, Jaen, Spain.

 

An impressive silhouette seen from the A-44 between Granada and Jaen, this relic of Spain’s “good times” stood red and proud.  The land around it was still clearly used for farming, however there was no sign of anyone living in this building – instead a small casita (little house) could be seen about a mile away and an old man smoking, slaving over an oilly motorbike; this was a sure sign of the depression that has hit Spain hard – especially in rural areas reliant upon agriculture.  No farming family could afford to live in a house like that these days, and in fact, the younger generation was nowhere to be seen… A common story for farming families, not just in Spain but all over Europe.  A culture becoming lost in modernity, a way of life, lost in the rubble.

Greenhouses, Santa Maria, Mallorca, Spain.

I noticed these skeletal greenhouses stretching across a wasteland on the way to a restaurant for dinner, a couple of days later I insisted that we went back to explore.  I’d never before seen a sprawl of derelict nurseries and these looked rather intriguing with the bright Mallorcan sun bouncing off every surface – highlighting the emptiness within the structure’s shell.  The relation between nature and man was here extremely evident with vines creeping through the cracks in the glass and flowers which would have been in pots now finding their roots in stationary grounds.  Weirdly though there seemed to be one minute section of the greenhouse still in use – with one room which was pitch black inside and very hot – they seemed to be cultivating little seedlings as shown in the photo below.  Maybe this place used to be a garden center that got shut down so now the owners just use it for their own desires – or maybe this place was between owners and the current landlords just hadn’t got round to sorting out the land.  Either way it definitely made an interesting explore and an even better subject for photos of nature as it becomes lost in the rubble.