The M62 has to be everyone’s worst stretch of motorway, despite some stunning bits of scenery. And, every person in a car has the same conversation about the mysterious house that sits in the middle of it splitting it in half.
“Does someone live there?”, “Why is it in the middle of the motorway?”. With one person always presenting the rumour that the farmer refused to move so they had to build the motorway around it.
The infamous stretch of motorway connects Yorkshire and Lancashire and is one of the busiest stretches. Being the highest in England, it can also feel quite treacherous in bad weather.
Unfortunately, this rumour is false and there is a much more sensible reason behind the farmhouse that sits on Stott Hall Farm.
To reason behind the motorway was built around the farm was due to a geological fault rather than the farmer refusing to leave. But, what is it like to have thousands of cars whizzing past your house each day?
Current owner Jill Falkingham-Thorp, who lives there with her husband Pail and their son John-William, told ExaminerLive what’s it’s like to live there.
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She said: “Traffic is very close, but it’s always windy here, which takes the pollution away. Students from the University of Huddersfield took soil and air samples and actually pollution is surprisingly low.
“We have treble glazing and it’s no different to living anywhere that has a road. But the noise does affect me as I am quite noise sensitive. Paul is fine with it but it does grate on me.
“It’s the sort of thing that if you are having a bad day the noise is the last straw. But it’s not going away.”
Describing her thoughts when she first starting living there Jill said: “When I first came the house was horrendous. It was dated and there was no bathroom upstairs. We had to rip all the flags up as everything was damp. All the carpets were mouldy and I was thinking ‘I can’t have a baby and live in this.’
“A lot of people say it’s bleak and like Wuthering Heights but I don’t see it like that. I think it’s beautiful.”
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Feature Image Credit: Photo © Peter McDermott (cc-by-sa/2.0)
