Simon Marsden
Allerton Park, Yorkshire, England
Vintage Gelatin Silver Print
41 x 31 cms
16 1/8 x 12 1/4 ins
16 1/8 x 12 1/4 ins
SM011
Literature
Simon Marsden, 'Phantoms of the Isles. Further Tales from the Haunted Realm', 1990, Illustrated and text P.91
Inscribed with title and signature on the back. 'When I was young my family lived in Lincolnshire but my brother and I were sent away to a northern Catholic boarding...
Inscribed with title and signature on the back.
'When I was young my family lived in Lincolnshire but my brother and I were sent away to a northern Catholic boarding school in Yorkshire and this meant that we were often driven past this extraordinary Gothic Revival house which lies next to the Great North Road between Wetherby and Boroughbridge. The fantastic mansion, with its dark and gloomy facade, is set back from the road behind high walls, and is encircled by lakes and follies that are overlooked by a classical temple on a hill. We rarely saw any sign of life near the building, no people or cars, yet it didn't appear to be deserted as sometimes there were lights on certain windows. It was a house of mystery and I felt certain that it must be haunted.
When I asked various people who lived there no one seemed to know exactly, they had only heard rumours that ranged from it being used as a mental asylum to the headquarters of a fanatical religious sect, and so each time I passed my imagination would run wild, and the terrifying faces of the crazed and evil spectres that I dreamt roamed the long, dark corridors gave me endless nightmares.
Later, after I left school, I lived in London for a lengthy period of time and very rarely saw the house again, but if I did it still affected me in the same way. After the publication of my first volume of ghost stories, 'The Haunted Realm' which included many similar houses, I was continually being asked the same question: 'Why are you so obsessed by old ruins and haunted houses?' By including this house here, whether it be haunted or not, I hope that I can very briefly try and answer this question.
Almost certainly in this case I am projecting the ghosts that lie within me into the house because of a deep yearning in my soul for an alternative to a modern day world that is in the main dominated by the stifling cult of reason, that denies mystery and replaces it with a safe and shallow reality called civilization.'
Extract from Simon Marsden, 'Phantoms of the Isles. Further Tales from the Haunted Realm', 1990, P.91
'When I was young my family lived in Lincolnshire but my brother and I were sent away to a northern Catholic boarding school in Yorkshire and this meant that we were often driven past this extraordinary Gothic Revival house which lies next to the Great North Road between Wetherby and Boroughbridge. The fantastic mansion, with its dark and gloomy facade, is set back from the road behind high walls, and is encircled by lakes and follies that are overlooked by a classical temple on a hill. We rarely saw any sign of life near the building, no people or cars, yet it didn't appear to be deserted as sometimes there were lights on certain windows. It was a house of mystery and I felt certain that it must be haunted.
When I asked various people who lived there no one seemed to know exactly, they had only heard rumours that ranged from it being used as a mental asylum to the headquarters of a fanatical religious sect, and so each time I passed my imagination would run wild, and the terrifying faces of the crazed and evil spectres that I dreamt roamed the long, dark corridors gave me endless nightmares.
Later, after I left school, I lived in London for a lengthy period of time and very rarely saw the house again, but if I did it still affected me in the same way. After the publication of my first volume of ghost stories, 'The Haunted Realm' which included many similar houses, I was continually being asked the same question: 'Why are you so obsessed by old ruins and haunted houses?' By including this house here, whether it be haunted or not, I hope that I can very briefly try and answer this question.
Almost certainly in this case I am projecting the ghosts that lie within me into the house because of a deep yearning in my soul for an alternative to a modern day world that is in the main dominated by the stifling cult of reason, that denies mystery and replaces it with a safe and shallow reality called civilization.'
Extract from Simon Marsden, 'Phantoms of the Isles. Further Tales from the Haunted Realm', 1990, P.91
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