Decay and ruin have had a bad press.
They can be fascinating, as visitors to the Purton Ships’ Graveyard by the River Severn in Gloucestershire have attested to, with one describing the site – home to the weathered skeletons of abandoned ships from the previous century – as possessing an ‘eerie beauty’.
Pictures here show some of the 86 steel barges, concrete ships, and wooden cargo boats that were deliberately beached on the bank of the river to help prevent
The lower ground floor looks like a bomb has gone off but the staircase seems firm. Going up floor by floor, I am told not to stray too close to the centre of each room for fear I might fall through.
In the little kitchen on the top floor, I find an old pot on an old stove. A faded photo of a child in an Edwardian sailor suit hangs on a wall, as does a yellowing calendar which suggests
For Isabella Holmes, losing her ‘beautiful, long, dark hair’ was one of the hardest things to bear about cancer treatment.
‘My husband Mark and I met at school and my hair was the thing he loved about me,’ she says.
‘My identity as a woman and my sexuality was all tied up with my long hair and my red lips — that was who I was. When I told him I was planning to shave my head rather than wait
