Beyond Words
7 YEARS AFTER I WALKED INTO THE OLD CHURCH…… and the culmination of over 150 old and derelict buildings later, a record exhibition attendance, an annual calendar, print and t-shirt sales and it is almost here……
As a lot of you will know, this book is a real labour of love. This was requested by the people who followed me on Facebook years ago. I quickly shot down any notion of publishing a book for many reasons; no experience, no funding, and no desire to monetise what i loved to do. Abandoned Yorkshire was a journal after all. The fact that it was picked up and nurtured by so many people really was the reason for this blog post, the website, the exhibition, the book and the form it takes today! It really belongs to you guys and it’s one of the reasons the book will only be available in limited numbers - so you have something exclusive and more historically valuable for it.
ABOUT THE BOOK
So, the book I wanted to be a piece of art. I wanted it to take pride of place in people’s houses. For that reason I have designed it as a large 12”x12” hardback book. It will feature 100 pages of colour hi res images and also, exclusively, write ups on the places I visited and their history. I often kept the location and history away from the images I posted online as I didn’t want the places to suffer from high levels of traffic or worse - arson! After seeing what has happened to some beautifully derelict buildings, like arson and vandalism, I set out from day one to make sure I didn’t publicise and glorify the fact of where I had visited, giving the viewer just a glimpse of what was inside. For the first time I will be naming many of these places in the book. Why? Because the people who buy the book deserve to know the history. You have invested in Abandoned Yorkshire over years and because of the limited number of books going out, I do not feel I am doing the buildings a disservice by telling everyone on the internet!
Old Orphange
CONTENT
With 7 years of exploring Yorkshire and plenty of trips outside the region and even France and Belgium, trying to fit all this in one book has meant some difficult choices to make in what goes in and what is left out. I’ve included 20 locations initially in this First Edition (I expect there to be a Second Edition!) and have filled it with a nice mix of industry, commercial, residential and religious buildings. Each book will be signed and numbered by me. If the campaign reaches it’s goal, I expect the books to be printed and shipped by February!
