I
got a call one day in January 2014 from Sonyes, a great urban explorer,
photographer and friend, who I occasionally explore with. It went something
along the lines of, "Are you doing anything tomorrow, I've got a
new site you might enjoy?" Quite intrigued, I
told him I was very much up for it, and so the following morning we
trundled off the short distance from my place to the site, parked up, and
commenced a quick recce.
Entry? Well, we made it difficult by picking
security fences to crawl under/climb over/squeeze through when all we actually had to do
was slip around a gate - but why make it easy when it's so much more
fun taking the torturous route! Getting inside to take photographs was no picnic either,
necessitating a climb up a wall aided by a rather rotten pallet in order
to access a suitable way in which was not actually visible from down below.
I hasten to add that AS ALWAYS we walked in through an existing entry
point, we did NOT break and enter.
The house
itself, set in roughly twenty acres of gardens, with paddock, stable block et all, is vast and
sprawling, and a very strong justification for the concept of planning
permission - it looks like it was once a small house built next to a barn
or the like, with a disparate set of extensions, bridging structures and
embellishments, all added willy nilly over the years with little
appreciation or vision for what the final result would be - quite
horrible! And believe it or not there was even a band stand -
although it has been demolished now it is still clear to see on Google
Earth. Once inside we were greeted by a veritable mess of
seventies kitsch, chipboard furniture and studded walls in
Über
abundance, in short, a 'compliment'
to the negativity of the exterior!
So who lived here? What is an Honorary Consul? What was this place all about? Well... the house, known as Pemberton
House Farm, was the home of one Howard James Pym, and his wife Pauline. Mr. Pym, born in 1947, is
a business man who has been involved in many diverse projects. A brief
trawl of the net found several companies he has been involved with and
here is a little bit of information on each of them:
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Incorporation
date, 12th. December, 1990. Dissolution date, 19th. March, 1996.
Clearly this was one of the first businesses Howard and Pauline created. I think the name would tend to indicate it was a
paint ball venture or something of that ilk. |
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Incorporation date - 15th. August, 1995. It appears this too was
one of Howie and Pauline's earlier ventures.
I cannot find a date of dissolution but it appears the company no
longer exists. |
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Incorporation
date - 9th. July, 2004. The company
is described as dissolved. According to the companies site I found the
information on the nature of the business was something to do with 'hotels and similar accommodation'.
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Incorporation date -
5th. December,
2006. Company dissolved, 24th. April, 2012. Two directors
listed, Howard Pym andPauline Pym. Nature of business unknown but the
title implies it was something similar in nature to the current flood
of show ticket parasites like Ticket Master. |
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Incorporation date
- 4th. September, 2007. Dissolution Date - 30th. June, 2009. Howie and
his missus were the directors yet again. I'm wondering if this was
simply a resurrection of his first Ticket Action but if so how come
Ticket Action number 1 appears to have continued until as late as
2012? |
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Incorporation date
- 13 November 2007. Dissolution Date - 11th. August, 2009. Guess what?
The directors are Howie and Pauline again! This is beginning to look
a bit like these were 'paper-businesses'
to me! |
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Incorporation date
- 17th. January, 2008. Again this company has been dissolved. It sounds
like it was basically a used car dealership selling posh motors to
egotistical people - his so called 'stars'!!! |
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Incorporation date
- 27th. February, 2008. Sure enough dear old Howard was the director
of the company so it looks like he was pretty busy that year! It is
unclear as to whether or not the company is still active and what
exactly a Diamond Credit Card is but I did find an article about a
credit card of that name which is inlaid with a real diamond and
embellished with gold. It was a limited release card aimed at
millionaires and only 1000 cards were ever made available. The
question is, is it Howard's company that made them? |
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I can't find any
dates for this business or much other information either but the one
gem my search threw up is that the company was involved with 'Clay
Ceramic and Refractory Minerals' and it is undoubtedly old
Howie again because the business address quoted is the same as for all the
others. |
Clearly then Howard was quite the entrepreneur
and if the size of his house is anything to go by he most certainly wasn't
as unsuccessful as the above list of dissolved companies might at first
suggest. In time he involved himself in charity work including financing the building of a students club and school in Sierra Leone -
BELOW
LEFT .
As a result of this and other charity work he was awarded
the honour of "OSJ usa of Krac-Knights of Malta"
- basically this is an honorary knighthood within the order of the Maltese
Knights of St. John and his certificate of knighthood can be seen -
ABOVE
CENTRE LEFT .
In August 2004 Howard was appointed as
Honorary Consul to
Latvia.
Many consuls are not actually career officials of the country they
represent at all;
they can be locally-employed and may even be nationals of the country in
which the foreign power requires representation rather than a citizen of
the parent country. In smaller cities, or in cities that are a long way
from full-time diplomatic missions, a foreign government which feels that
representation is required will often appoint a person who has not even
been a part of their diplomatic service previously. This kind of consul
may well combine the job with his own business. Such consular appointments
are given the title of Honorary Consul. Their role includes the promotion
of business opportunities for companies from the parent country, taking
part in strengthening the parent country's image abroad, and looking after
the welfare of citizens from the appointing country within what is known
as their
bailiwick.
The picture -
ABOVE
CENTRE RIGHT shows Howard and
another chap posing for the press outside the gates of his home as the news broke
of his appointment as Honorary Consul. The final picture - ABOVE
RIGHT - shows Howard together
with the President of Latvia, and the President's wife, on the occasion of
a visit to Latvia shortly after his appointment to the consulate.
Quite
why the house was sold is unclear but I suspect it was as
simple as the Pyms had grown tired of it so it was time for them to move on.
The property was listed with Reed and Rains Estate Agents and a target
price of
£999,950 was set - a
bargain, you even get 50 quid change from your million! Eventually though
the house and the 20 acre plot of land upon which it stands sold to Stocks
Hall Care Homes Ltd. for
£850,000. They
submitted a
planning application to the
local council to create a 48 bedroom rehabilitation centre for drug
addicts, alcoholics and the mentally ill, but the local NIMBIEs objected
most strenuously citing concerns about the type of people that would use the
rehab centre, the fact that
it is located in the green belt, fears for highway safety, the impact on
the amenities and
the character of the area, and drainage problems. Not surprisingly the
planning application was refused although I do wonder just how much the
local 'Planning Objections Committee' must have bunged the council to ensure they got
their own way!
Below is a selection of the
photographs we took in and around Pemberton Hall Farm in January 2014.
To
view any of the photographs in a far bigger size then click on the
image of your choice and it will open in a new window.
Click on the
BACK
button to the right if you wish to return to our urb-ex
site front page... |
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