Grade II listed Wigan home now resembles eerie time capsule after being abandoned when its owners died

Urban explorers came across the crumbling six-bed, grade II listed property which is full of old newspapers, magazines, family photos and bottles of spirits amassed over decades.

Despite evidence that the house in Wigan was lived in as recently at 2017, the décor and furnishings appear to be a time capsule from a much earlier decade.

A 1970s-style square TV features in the living room, while the carpet and wallpaper appears unchanged for decades.

A couple of urban explorers, known only as Andrew and Courtney, both 23, came across the house as part of their hobby of finding fascinating abandoned buildings.

They believe the house belonged to a couple called Jack and Synthia, who lived into their 90s.

They think Synthia died in 2012 and Jack lived alone until his death in 2017. The house has remained untouched ever since.

Courtney, of Leeds, West Yorks, said: “It seems that his wife passed away a few years before Jack died and he lived there alone until he died.

"We worked out the house has been abandoned since 2017, that was the last year on the calendar in the house. The last date marked off was February 15.

“There was a lot still in the house, like cleaning products, drinks, the garden was really overgrown and the house was really big.”

Among the hundreds of artefacts are Jack’s old national service papers, a strew of family photos and birthday cards celebrating Synthia’s 90th birthday.

There were also two bottles of Babycham and a number of bottles of rum, which appeared to be Jack’s favourite tipple.

Courtney, who first took up the hobby during lockdown in 2020, said she is fascinated by learning about the past of a house and the lives of its inhabitants.

But she said exploring the house was tinged with sadness at the thought of all the years the couple had spent together.

She added: “Jack must have lived in one part of the house towards the end. There was a note on the wall that he’d written for his carers to turn the taps off.

“Jack was in his 90s when he died, we found his birth certificate and we think his wife was around 90 when she died.

“It’s quite sad to see, you walk into the living room and you realise it’s somebody’s family home and it was just left like that one day and never touched again and it’s stayed that way ever since.

“It’s like a time capsule, it’s just frozen in time. A lot of the features in the house are from a long time ago, I think a lot of older people didn’t renovate very often, so it looks even older.

“They would have said on their wedding day ‘til death do us part’ and death did part them.”

Courtney and Andrew often share their amazing discoveries on social media as urbexcoupleac.