Abandoned Wiltshire: Arsonist's House

On 21st August 2011 a 63-year-old man decided to burn down his family home on his 35th wedding anniversary. After the breakdown of his marriage, the owner devised a suicide and arson attack on the property. He wanted to ensure that nobody else got hurt so put the family pets outside and placed the laptops of his adult children in the garage. When his daughter went out for lunch he poured petrol over the living room, dining room, bedrooms and study. He used three petrol cans and soaked multiple sentimental items belonging to his wife. Fire officers attending the scene said it was the most obvious arson they had seen in their careers. However his suicide plans were abandoned after fears that local residents and neighbours may get hurt in the fire. By the time the police were called around £100,000 worth of damage had already occurred in the property.

Explore

This family home is located on a busy road in a well built-up area of Wiltshire. From the main road you can clearly tell it is fire damaged and derelict. The front gate is broken and off its hinges and the garden is overgrown with weeds. In 2020 it was the subject of another arson attack and thankfully nobody was hurt. This house was a short explore and the story behind the arson is what really makes it fascinating. After a decade of abandonment, the roof and upper floor have collapsed. The living room is filled with charred rubble but the fireplace is still in tact and is one of the impressive features. The kitchen and pantry were a lot less fire damaged and some items still remain which include some bottles and funky coloured tiles.

Future plans

Calibre Homes currently own the site and put in an application to demolish the house and built three 4-bedroom homes. This would include creating 7 new parking spaces to have 9 in total. The deadline for Wiltshire to respond to the application was 25th January 2023 and this has passed. Calibre Homes claim “The development of the site will be a great visual improvement compared to the current burnt out and neglected dwelling”. The planning application has received criticism from the local community and the council expressed concerns about the design quality. Wiltshire Council have told a local newspaper that the delay to the planning application is due to planning officers needing to work through the responses they received during the consultation stage of the application.