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
BRITISH BEACH-LIFE SPLIT SHOTS

UNDERWATER and above-water seaside shots show the best of British beach-life .

SUNBATHING OTTER

A lazy otter finds the ideal spot to soak up the sun and sleep off his lunch .

AMAZING AURORA BOREALIS

A GLOWING range of greens and blues sweep across the sky in a spectacular display of light .

STUNNING SUMATRAN TIGER CAUSES A SPLASH

BURSTING from the water, a beautiful but deadly Sumatran tiger jumps for food in an Indonesian zoo .

ANGRY GIRAFFE DESTROYS BIKE

AN ANGRY giraffe gave a bush-riding cyclist a scare when he stomped his £2K bike into the dirt .

ENDANGERED GORILLA BORN AT TWYCROSS ZOO

A proud gorilla mum welcomes her newborn baby western lowland gorilla, a critically endangered species .

Korean Mass Games

These are the amazing close up pictures of North Korea's mass games - after photographers were previously banned from taking shots so close to the dazzling formation dances .

VISOR FASHION FAIL

FROM motorcycling to department store shopping these spookily faceless people are part of the Chinese-fad for wearing protective solar-visors in public .

WAVES FROZEN IN TIME

Beautiful turquoise waves rise and fall in a series of stunning images taken along the coastline of south-eastern Australia .

SOUTHERN CROSSED AURORA

YOU’VE heard of the northern lights now feast your eyes on the natural wonder of the SOUTHERN lights .

STRIPED MARLIN SPEARS ITS CATCH

A striped marlin means business as it spots lunch and spears a small fish .

THANKSGIVING DINNER PREPARED BY ARTISTS

An artist has transformed traditional Thanksgiving dinners into mini-masterpieces .