THE LOCATION OF the distinctive moorland cottage seen in Gone to the Angels, the fifth episode of the first series of Survivors, has been confirmed - following a long and determined search.

The cottage provided the 1975 filming location for all of the exteriors of the home of 'the Angels' (the religious hermits visited first by Abby, and then later by Greg, Jenny and the children). Abby's visit seals the fate of 'the Angels', who all succumb to the infection that she brings with her. The death of the three religious devotees confirms that survivors of The Death remain carriers of the disease - certain to infect anyone they come into contact with who has not already been exposed.

Things went quiet for a while, but then I made a renewed commitment to finding this location

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Steve Clutterbuck

Survivors' location hunter Steve Clutterbuck concedes that: "the hunt for this elusive location has been going on, on and off, for the past four years."

"My own search began on the Geograph web site, back in 2010," Steve recalls. "But despite a lot of searching, and one possible matching cottage (which turned out to be a dead-end), this revealed nothing of any use."

"Things went quiet for a while, but then recently I made a renewed commitment to finding this location," explains Steve. "I sent out a lot of emails to contacts throughout Herefordshire in the hope someone might recognise the place from screen-shots."

"I also contacted the local paper the Ross Gazette, and they generously gave me a free advert in the paper, which did generate a few leads and suggestions."

"The first lead led me to Coppet Hill near Goodrich. It turned out that this wasn't the place. But there was a similar-looking building, and even the wall around the house was a good likeness. It just was not what we were looking for!"

"Another suggestion I received was that the cottage was over the border in Wales. I decided to try following this up through Facebook," says Steve. "I looked for any Facebook pages that focused on South Wales, particularly on areas around Abergavenny and Monmouth. I also checked out a lot of web sites and online forums for bed-and-breakfasts and guest-houses in the area - a stretch, I realise, but it was just possible that this could turn up a vital lead!"

"The people at the Black Mountain Smokery suggested that I contact the author Kevin Walker, who has written about the Black Mountains and the surrounding areas."

I sent out a lot of emails... in the hope someone might recognise the place from screen-shots

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Steve Clutterbuck

"So I emailed him, with details of the cottage, to see if he had any idea as to its location. Kevin came back to me with the map co-ordinates of a cottage near the village of Crickhowell he thought might be the one. He did add that it 'does not look like it looked in 1975 any more' - and how right he was!"

In possession of the best lead so far, Steve entered the co-ordinates into Google Earth and pulled up the area on the map. "It immediately looked good to me," he says.

Needing to check things out in person to be sure, Steve arranged a location visit and was delighted to be able to confirm that this is indeed the right rural cottage. "It certainly does look different to how it did on screen in Gone to the Angels," he says. "The building has new extensions on the left and right hand sides, and bushes and trees have grown up all around the place over the last forty years."

"It was a brilliant outcome," Steve says, "and the result of a lot of hard work: many hours on the computer, and many more hours of driving around in the Herefordshire and Welsh countryside!"

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