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Published: December 15th 2013
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Abandoned wrecking yard
This blog entry is from a non-standard site, an abandoned wrecking yard in the village Ryd in southern Sweden.
A reader said that he identified this car as an Austin A30 "The highway's jammed with broken heroes"
We love visiting traditional tourist sights. Iconic landmarks like
Empire State Building,
the Eiffel Tower and the
Leaning Tower of Pisa have been included in our travel itineraries. Historical places such as
Macchu Piccu, the
Colosseum and
Shibam are just as important to us. Wildlife and nature is also high on our agenda when we plan trips.
Monarch Butterfly Reserve, the
Angel Falls and the
Maldives are a few examples of wonderful nature we have enjoyed.
But sometimes we end up in places that we find just as fascinating as these traditional sights but that gets either no or only very limited attention by the authors of guide books and that tour companies are guaranteed to ignore altogether. Sometimes we include them in the blog entries together with everything else, such as the
Steel Works of Elbasani or
Mahonda Coffee Washing Station, and sometimes we add blog entries which only cover that particular place or sight such as
Örkelljunga,
Ladonia and
Ytterby.
This blog entry is from another non-standard site, an
abandoned wrecking yard in the village Ryd in southern Sweden. Some people reading this blog entry will not be able to see the point in visiting this place. We know the feeling. Lots of
A car has sunk down in the bog
The wrecking yard is located on a peat bog outside town.
A reader said that he identified this car as a Ford, possibly a Ford Prefect people enjoy visiting nightclubs or ski resorts, something we can't see the point in doing, but we are OK with other people doing that. Well, visiting an abandoned wrecking yard is something that we enjoyed doing.
The wrecking yard is located on a peat bog outside town. The bog was owned by a man named Åke Danielsson and in the first half of the 20th Century he made a living by harvesting the peat and selling it. In the 1940-ies the peat business was no longer profitable and Åke Danielsson had to find another way to make a living. He was a good mechanic so he decided to open a wrecking yard where he took care of used cars and stripped them for parts. He left the wrecked cars all over the bog and some of them started to sink down in the soggy ground.
In the 1980-ies Åke Danielsson retired and later he moved into a retirement home. Left on the bog where the old cars where he left them and they were a problem. They were an eyesore and an environmental hazard and the authorities wanted to get rid of them. But
Old car wreck
On the bog the old cars were left were they were placed.
A reader said that he identified this car as a Ford Anglia Åke Danielsson could not afford to have the old cars towed away and the authorities sure didn't want to pay the bill for doing that either. The authorities decided to let the cars be where they were for the time being.
In the year 2000 Åke Danielsson passed away and now the car wrecks again became an issue. The authorities tried to persuade Åke's relatives to arrange for the car wrecks to be taken away. They refused of course and since they hadn't put them there in the first place they could not be legally forced to do it either even though they now were the owners of the land where the cars were. But by then car enthusiasts had realised that this abandoned wrecking yard was more than just a rubbish dump, it was a cemetery for cars. Many of the cars were from the 40-ies and the 50-ies and people started to travel there to have a look at the rusting pieces of metal scattered in the area. Also other people started to put pressure on the authorities to leave the cars alone, as a sort of monument. They pointed out that there is beauty
The site is signposted
The sign says "Car cemetery" in letting the nature slowly reclaim the wrecks. The authorities eventually were convinced that perhaps it wasn't such a bad idea to leave the cars and let them slowly disintegrate and return to nature. Perhaps the prospect of having to pay for the cleanup of the area helped them along to accept that idea.
The wrecking yard is now recognised as a tourist site and is even signposted from the road. The sign says "Car cemetery" by the way, and there is an information plaque at the car park telling some of the background of the site.
We have decided to add quite a few photos from this site simply because we feel rusty car wrecks standing on a peat bog makes good photos. We hope you think so too and that you enjoy looking at them.
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Dancing Dave
David Hooper
Broken heroes...heading to car heaven
Sort of spiritual to see pages of broken heroes...broken bodies...their souls long departed...leaving only empty shells. Great blog...beautiful but tragic images.