The lost properties of East Anglia falling into ruin

The ruined St Mary's Church at Clophill in Bedfordshire is now being preserved. Credit: ITV News Anglia

From humble farmhouses to great stately homes and crumbling historic churches, the East Anglian countryside is littered with buildings falling into ruin.

Some of the lost properties are being restored, others preserved while many will just be knocked down and replaced.

ITV News Anglia's Stuart Leithes has filmed and produced a series of reports on the region's 'Lost Properties'

Retired farmer Dennis Clarke, 88, was born in the now derelict farm cottage his grandfather built just after the FirstWorld War at Benwick near Peterborough.

Although dilapidated, the building can still be found next to a Fenland road in Cambridgeshire known as Forty Foot Bank.

The wooden house will soon be demolished and replaced.

  • Click below to watch a report about the farmhouse

Across the East of England there are dozens of historic churches that have fallen into ruin over the centuries. There are more church ruins in Norfolk than any other county in England.

Many are being preserved by local community groups. St Mary's church at Appleton near King's Lynn has been a ruin for hundreds of years while All Saints at Oxwick near Fakenham only became derelict in 1940.

Once they were at the heart of a community. Now in many cases they're the only sign that a village ever existed.

In Bedfordshire at Clophill you'll find the ruin of another St Mary's church. Eight years ago the Clophill Heritage Trust was set up to look after it. Eco lodges have been built nearby to help fund the preservation of the church.

  • Click below to watch a report about our lost churches

Houghton House's time as a grand country mansion was relatively short-lived.

Built in the early 1600s by Mary Herbert, Dowager Countess of Pembroke and then dismantled by the end of the 18th century.

It has stood as a ruin on this hilltop near Ampthill for more than 200 years.

  • Click below to watch a report on Houghton House in Bedfordshire

Castle Acre near Swaffham in Norfolk has the impressive remains of a castle - and also a ruined priory - from its time as an important settlement after the Norman conquest.

  • Click to watch a report on Castle Acre in Norfolk