Undershaw revisited (again)

Today I made my first trip to Undershaw since the news that it had been sold.

So what's changed?

Well, very little. The sign at the head of the drive still says that the house is for sale despite it being the case that contracts have supposedly been exchanged. However, that is probably just an oversight. Work clearly cannot start until the sale completes so nothing has happened to the house. The boards that had been taken off windows for some of the new owners' videos have been replaced.

My wife had never seen the excellent and unspoiled view from the house's South(?) facing side so we risked the cameras and popped in for what might well be the last chance to see before restoration work begins.

I also got a quick photo taken at the same time.

A short while earlier I had popped to Grayshott churchyard to monitor the state of the three Conan Doyle graves.

Those for Conan Doyle's mother and his first two children are in as good a condition as you could expect. That for his first wife Louise is still almost black with grime. I was also disappointed that I had to clear litter from the immediate area as if someone had come to visit those very graves and just dropped their sandwich wrapper before leaving.

The grave of Mary Doyle (ACD's mother)

The dual grave of Kingley and Mary Conan Doyle (ACD's children by Louise)

Louise Conan Doyle's grave

Written by Alistair Duncan

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