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Urban Exploration

Tales of the Urban Explorer: The Red Nova House

It’s quite embarrassing to post about ‘The Red Nova House’ in the year 2026, while everyone else was in around 5 years ago. @anidiotexplores and I must have been among the last unwelcome visitors to this ‘house ’, which is likely renovated by now.

I say this because my visit was in May 2024, and I’m forgetting the details, the experiences, and everything else related to these visits, as it was so long ago.

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While @anidiotexplores had done this one before, my previous attempt to the southerly edges of Stoke-on-Trent in search of the ‘Red Nova’ failed miserably due to crap intelligence. Some arsehole gave me the wrong pin, in other words.

In times gone by ‘The Red Nova House’ was a decent time capsule and contained an old Vauxhall Nova in the colour of red stored in a garage. Word got out; a car thief summarily visited and nicked all the parts of value, then listed them on eBay and left behind a vehicle shell.

The Urban Exploration scene violently reacted to the news, arms up in the air, chickens squawking; someone got blamed, they got publicly denounced, and then it was quickly forgotten.

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This was an unwelcome sight. Trees cleared, visible evidence of human activity and, worst of all, a tractor. It was evident someone had been doing some work on or around the grounds of ‘The Red Nova House’.

Was I too late?

Undeterred, we climbed the metal gate at the edge of the property and gingerly walked toward the house, very aware that an angry new owner could be hanging around, doing some cleaning, or even watching us with a deadly sharpened trident in hand.

Luck prevailed, and we made it to the garage where the famous wreck now stands. Other than that, the garage had several items of interest.

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Who says nothing happened during World War II besides killing? Someone passed their rudimentary piano exam in 1942. Fuck knows who, as the scrawling is not very legible.

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I figure that rusty circular saw could take someone’s head off, if you held them down. Don’t forget the gag.

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A newspaper article complaining about the state of parking in 1992. Could it be that writings such as this started the birth of those parasite parking companies?

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St Austell Bay; sounds like something straight out of a Famous Five Enid Blyton children’s book.

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A pint of milk was 34p in 1991? To be honest, that seems expensive for the time, although it’s the real stuff and not the watered-down supermarket shit we get now.

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Old historic family photographs should always be stored in a dusty, damp garage where they can easily be damaged.

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Harry Secombe, ack... I don’t want to go there. Bad memories of terrible yawny TV when growing up.

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… and there it is, the infamous Red Nova with @anidiotexplorers posing on one knee in blessed reverence.

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What a wonder piece of heritage this is; worth every mile of painful driving to see this historical miracle.

I gathered my thoughts and tried to concentrate, knowing the house was still unexplored, but it was difficult as my mind was still whirling. I had been witness to one of the ancient motoring wonders of England, so whatever came next was going to pale stiffly in comparison.

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Climbing through a window, like dirty burglars, we arrived in the kitchen. It looked like the new buyer had not started emptying the house.

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A pictorial biography from 1965 of the grumpy prime minister who was running the country during World War II. Not my type of literature.

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The style of the label says everything, truly ancient!

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It was nice to see some authentic cobwebs. I was not too late after all.

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Sheet music, just 5p. That’s 1’, not that I remember such medieval currencies.

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Sometimes I love to read these old advertisements, especially about smoking being good for you, but on this occasion, it was just about some boring chrome cleaner.

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Time after time I see photographs of people wearing ridiculous attire. Would you want to see this dude every morning looking at you?

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The windows need a little cleaning, and then you might be able to see something besides spiders and their webs.

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So untidy; do some cleaning up… someone.

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The can of 3-in-1 oil is a familiar sight to me; everything else is out of the ark.

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I figure some tidying has been done. Kitchens are generally so full of crap you can barely move.

It was time to leave via the kitchen window again; I would still rate ‘The Red Nova House’ as a time capsule, at the time of visitation.

Just a few more months and it would be far too late for further visits. This one was on the edge of exploring territory, and I was feeling more than a little uncomfortable.

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Having left the property, we got in my car and had to drive past the entrance of ‘The Red Nova House’. Given the fact that I parked no more than 200 yards away, I felt a sense of relief while driving past it.

The gate was open, and a car had entered the premises. A bloke was getting out and watched us pass by ever so smugly, suspicion clearly etched into his face.

Did he know it was us? Had we been secretly camera’d, and he had turned up just a few minutes too late? We will never know.

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My Urban Exploration Tales can be found directly on the internet via my Website: 'Tales of the Urban Explorer'.

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If you found this article so invigorating that you are now a positively googly-eyed, drooling lunatic with dripping saliva or even if you liked it just a bit, then please upvote, comment, rehive, engage me or all of these things.

Comments · 18

  • @litguru(74)· 4h

    What a weird and wonderful time capsule. The tractor didn't look promising but thankfully some of the contents were still intact, in spite of the cleaning.

    image.png

  • @bozz(83)· 16h

    Oh, it's a car! I had no clue what you were talking about!

  • @stef1234(63)· 1d

    Just came across your page and this was a good first time read

  • @agmoore(76)· 2d

    This place is truly a wreck!! Those newspapers/magazines on the floor bring back memory of a shack my brothers and sisters and I discovered near our house. This was deep in the woods. No windows. One room. A true shack. But all across the floor, like a rug, there were comic books. Some in great shape. We grabbed the ones that were in decent shape and took them back to our house. I had just finished the fourth grade and I read them over the summer.

    That wasn't urban exploring. It was forest exploring :))

  • You do come up with the most incredible finds!

    Sending you some Ecency curation votes

  • @azircon(79)· 2d

    A post after a long time......

  • @atnazo(77)· 2d

    Every place have his own history. Sometimes we only see what everyone else sees. It looks not bad at the day time but in the night? I don't know if I want to be in this house at night haha. You never know what gonna happen.

  • @molometer(72)· 2d

    It never ceases to amaze me how properties like this just become abandoned? The Nova will probably sit there for another 50 years. 😀👍

  • @grindle(79)· 2d

    Well hello stranger! Fucking hell thats changed and yup late to the party LOL

    https://peakd.com/hive-104387/@grindle/rural-urbex-the-infamous-red-nova-june-2020

  • @chinito(74)· 2d

    looks like out of some video game.. like fallout.

  • @visualshots(69)· 2d

    🔟🔟🔟

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    This post was curated by @jlinaresp from the Visual Shots Team | Be part of our Curation Trail - Delegations are Welcome

  • @pizzabot(60)· 2d

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  • @discovery-it(69)· 2d


    This post was shared and voted inside the discord by the curators team of Discovery-it in collaboration with Visual Shots community.
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  • @jlinaresp(81)· 2d

    My dear and witty master of urban exploration and his great photos full of drama and color!... Delighted to see this!...

    !discovery shots !PIZZA

    💯💯💯💯

  • @steevc(81)· 2d

    That was still a bit of a time capsule. Some people just never throw anything away. Who keeps old newspapers anyway? My other half had a red Nova like that when we hooked up. It's long gone now. They were pretty common.

  • @asgharali(79)· 2d

    It is still surprising that this place has not been renovated since 2024. I wonder why the owner has left this property in such a deserted condition for so long.

    Since you visited this place in 2024 and are now exploring it again, finding old things that remind you of your past must be a wonderful and emotional experience. Looking at your pictures especially the picture frames are really worty.. These old things must bring back many beautiful memories.

    I’m sure this property may be renovated very soon and this could possibly be your last visit to this place 🫣

  • @ceszianne(69)· 2d

    Wow! This is very interesting! Most of the people loves to listen to tales and see it's history.

  • @worldmappin(82)· 2d
    Congratulations, your post has been added to The WorldMapPin Map! 🎉



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