LEFT TO ROT
Inside crumbling time-capsule cottage left untouched for 20 years
THESE pictures show the shocking state a cottage is in after it was left untouched for 20 years.
The crumbling former home has been overtaken by nature and is barely visible from the public footpath it sits alongside.
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But inside it has been left exactly as it was when the owner died approximately 20 years ago.
Clothes still hang where they were drying over a woodburning stove, opened food cans and jars are still rotting and family photos have remained still on display.
Other items include a piano and a bed that was moved into the kitchen while teddy bears are sat on the dust-ridden chairs and he former occupant's glasses still sit on the bedside table.
Richard Walden, 55, of Woolacombe, Devon, came across the cottage while walking with a friend on a public footpath in a rural location near Exeter on Tuesday evening.
He said: "I just stumbled across it and we were both like "wow" and we thought let's go and explore.
"One of the boards had been removed and the kitchen window was wide open so we took some photos inside.
"It was incredible. The house was literally untouched for about 20 years.
"It had clearly been lived in by an older person, probably a woman. There was still a tin of pilchards that hadn't been emptied and the rotten remains of fish.
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"There were lots of jars of food, Marmite, and a wood-burning stove. There was still wood in a bucket and hanging above was clothes that she had drying over the heat.
"The bed had been moved into the kitchen so it looks like in her final days she had been sleeping there.
"There were teddy bears placed in chairs, a couple of family member photos, and lots of books. You could see she was interested in art the countryside and birds.
"But it was terribly sad. The cottage is so overgrown you could walk right past it and not notice anything.
"It is clearly a snapshot of someone's life nearly 20 years ago. Presumably she sadly passed away and the house has been left since.
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"It is a real time capsule. There is a clock, personal items lying around and her glasses still sit on the table next to the bed.
"Her body was clearly taken away but nothing has happened since. Someone must own it, but whoever does did not even have the courtesy to empty it. It is now all mouldy and just really sad.
"How can someone's whole life just be left to rot away, untouched and of no interest to anybody. It is really sad."
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