WELSH HOTEL ONCE HOME TO WWI SOLDIERS NOW LIES ABANDONED

A grand 56-bedroom hotel, once heaving with injured soldiers during the First World War, now lies completely abandoned. Named The Rest, the Grade II listed building in Porthcawl, Wales was built as a convalescent hotel in the early 1860s. It was subsequently used as an auxiliary military hospital from 1915. Between World War I and II, the hospital provided care for more than 2,500 wounded soldiers from Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The Rest, which sits on a clifftop overlooking Rest Bay, returned to civilian use as a convalescent hotel in 1946, before it closed in 2013. Photographer Shaun Ashford, 25, of Cardiff, Wales, visited the historic site and captured the Victorian building’s empty interiors.

Other great stories
MAN AND TOY PIG SEARCH WORLD FOR MISSING CUDDLY COMPANION

An Australian explorer has travelled the globe with a toy pig, known as Travel Piggy, in search of a missing cuddly companion .

ABANDONED CARE HOME LIES FORGOTTEN

BEHIND the doors of this building, with its stacks of mattresses and discarded remains of wheelchairs, lies another victim of austerity cuts .

PHOTOGRAPHER CAPTURES UNIQUE PATTERNS OF THE HUMAN EYE

A Romanian photographer has captured the unique patterns of hundreds of human eyes in a series of striking macro shots .

ADORABLE SQUIRREL TRIES HER HAND AT PHOTOGRAPHY

A curious red squirrel takes a break from collecting nuts and tries her hand at photography .

BEAUTIFUL BRITISH LANDSCAPES

FROM the rolling hills of the Scottish highlands to looming chalk cliffs in Sussex, these stunning photographs capture the spectacular beauty of Great Britain .

MONKEY BATH

RAISING his foot into the air, this cheeky monkey offers an unusual wave .

INTIMATE PORTRAITS OF AFRICAN TRIBES

A German photographer travelled around Africa where he met and photographed members of tribes in a series of intimate portraits .

OTTER FAMILY FIGHT

Splashing around in the water, a mother otter and her son are tangled in a family feud .

EASTER ISLAND REPLICA STATUES DESTROYED IN SEA FALL

A project to create an underwater tribute to the stone Moai statues of Easter Island ended in disaster when 15 replica structures were destroyed after toppling from a boat and into the sea .

ADORABLE BABY ORANGUTAN PLAYS WITH MUM

TUGGING at his exhausted mum's ears, a beautiful baby orangutan refuses to settle for a nap as he begins a game of peek-a-boo .

STUNNING INTERSTELLAR PATTERNS

IN a galaxy far, far away, this collection of stunning interstellar formations will leave you STARSTRUCK .

SNOW HITS BIRMINGHAM

More weather chaos is heading our way, with ice and snow already hitting areas across Birmingham .