Tales of the Urban Explorer: Pineheath House

Without being handed this location I would never have found it. It looks like it is in the middle of the country but don’t be fooled.

Pineheath House nestles within the leafy suburbs of a Yorkshire town, relativity concealed from everyday life.

It was once the height of luxury with 12-bedrooms, an observation tower, and heated garages for the vehicles.

Sir Dhunjibhoy was knighted in 1922 for his enormous donations to the British war effort during World War One. Ever the philanthropist, he donated huge amounts of his vast wealth to charities which helped veterans and widows of the Great War.

Sir Dhunjibhoy and Lady Bomanji would spend summer at their home in Windsor, before returning to Bombay (now Mumbai), India, for six months. The couple would then spend autumn at Pineheath House, a tradition Lady Bomanji continued until she died in 1986, 49 years after her husband's death.

The house was sold in 2013 after the death of the Bomanjis' adopted daughter Mehroo Jehangir the year before.

There had been plans to convert the 40-room house into luxury apartments… however…

Entering the grounds was the usual matter of scrambling through prickly gorse bushes, swearing a bit, and trying to do it when no nosey bastards were watching.

We did quite well as it was a Saturday afternoon and I’m guessing everyone was out shopping.

I noticed what looked like security cameras and a lot of them. There was also one of those 360 degrees 'All-Seeing Eye' ones.

Getting in was never going to be a problem, but how about all this bloody security pointing at us?

@dizzydiscovery was about to call it but I called him out - 'What are they going to do..., arrest us?'

A minute later we were in a shell of a house, with not even plasterboard left looking to get things done quickly.

So is it being renovated then?

We wandered through room after room and it was getting a little dull, as barely anything had been left behind.

No Indian turbans, not even a dupatta (OK so I did have to look that one up).

There were a few golf balls dotted around the place and even the odd club. Had someone been playing indoor golf?

I could see the potential of this detached large property and 1986.., it had stood the test of abandoned time extremely well.

I guess ‘Mehroo Jehangir' had been living in it, and why not?

This little sunning area would have been great once.., but not a thing left for us… tut.

So maybe the roof needs a little work, there was some water damage in at least one of the upper rooms.

Did someone run out of cash again, work has been done in here.

There’s even a lift for the servants. If Sir Dhunjibhoy did die in 1937, then servants would have been living in this house during the pre-war years.

As ever the safes were empty. One day I will open one and find otherwise.

They need to get these radiators fitted else there will be no house left.

The last area we checked out was the cellar, and this is what held all the treasure and goodies.

The CCTV system I concluded? We were not going to get busted and hauled out after all.

Was this some miscellaneous correspondence?

Checking closer revealed some old, old magazines and newspapers.

Yorkshire Life from 1966; the countryside appears to have changed very little! The magazine was too damp to open.

A newspaper from June 1964, and look at the style of the dress! A woman gives mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the front page. I guess there was little news that day.

The director of Leeds Polytechnic will be busting students who attend classes while high on LSD. So I'm too young to remember all this shit, wasn't everyone high on acid in 1970?

What this corroded thing in a suitcase is I don’t know. Looks like a tape reel connected to the lid.

Even the golf balls ended up in the cellar.

Just a few things left behind, somebody was into their cars.

Pineheath House was surprisingly almost graffiti free, I hope it stays that way.

Besides the newspapers I snapped, there were lots more but duplicates of the ones I was reading. Why would you keep 30 copies of the same newspaper?

Exiting from bushes is always a problem. You don't know who's walking past. Some bloke shouted 'OY.....' as he saw us leave. Too late dickhead!

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