“Hill House” is a gorgeous Victorian mansion situated up a fairly steep hill with cattle grazing around. It is built in the Neo-Gothic style with some earlier incorporations. There is a nice Venetian twist to the architecture. This place was amazing… However; I did not manage to explore it fully as I had only 20 minutes to snap some photographs and find a way in to get to the main stairwell. I will go back there in the next few weeks and do a proper explore and make a better report. BUT… I will say that there is an angry looking caretaker who marches around the site every 15 minutes from his house which is literally a stone’s throw from the house…!!!

Sunday, 31st March 2019:

I went back to Hill House today armed with my camera. I got there and all was good. I began to explore this vast building. All in all it took me about two and a half hours to do so. I found many interesting things, including a clock made by Gillett & Bland of Croydon in 1870. This company is very famous among church bell ringers like myself as they were a bell foundry from between the 1880’s and the 1950’s. Notable examples of Gillett & Johnston (their bellfouding name and successor) are Hillingdon, Watford, Preshute, Whitchurch-on-Thames and Newport Pagnell.

I have taken plenty of video but… I had to play cat and mouse with security who eventually caught me. Word of warning: do not come here. Development starts very soon as security is being tightened enormously – dog patrols occur every 15 minutes from Monday onwards. You will be caught if you go here.

Monday 20th July 2020:

I returned to this location with my friend Harry who had previously attempted to explore this site but had failed. The exterior is shrouded in scaffolding which could only mean development is to begin very soon. I was pretty sad to find the interior has decayed ENORMOUSLY since my last visit. The pristine staircase and many corridors were infested with mould and damp. The beautiful plasterwork has decayed and begun to crumble. Whilst there, we had a close one… the close call with security I have decided to name “The Hammer 2”!! All went fine until secca decided to do a round and hammer the walls to scare us out – we’d set off guard dogs (chained up) so they knew someone was around. We hid in the clock tower for an hour and a half too. I hid to the side where the pendulum was and Harry hid in the clock chamber. Secca stuck his head into the stairwell area, banged his hammer about and shone his torch up and missed my face by about two inches. How he didn’t see us is beyond both of us. Absolutely miraculous.