Cottage: Decay

Cottage: Decay, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Eastern Poland has far more traditional cottages than other regions of Poland, but many are in advanced states of decay and there is little support available for their owners.

On close inspection it looks that the better condition left hand end might not be original. The first clue is that there are two chimneys - usually there is one, about 1/3 of the way across the roof due to the standard layout of a cottage with one living room and a cross passage behind the fireplace/stove. Where the window is in the side is where you would expect a door to be, and to the left are white painted wall boards, and the remains of white-painted walls to the immediate left. All the brown walls to the left of that is the later extension, including the chimney on the line where the two parts join.

If so, it is the earlier part of the cottage that has succumbed first, unsurprisingly given that both parts are built with the same kind of materials.

A sign of impending doom was there in tarmacadam roof - originally this was undoubtedly thatch, and anyone with the money and foresight would have typically replaced this with asbestos tiles or steel sheeting. Or plastic roof tiles, I suppose, if done recently.

by Trevor Butcher

I have similar images for sale as prints, canvas or phone cases at: www.photo4me.com/canvasprints/trevor-butcher