- Joined
- Aug 27, 2013
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Visited with Cloaked Up. WARNING: If you've seen this 2012 or before, look away!
At long, long last I've finally managed to get in! First and foremost, however there are some people here I owe a great deal of gratitude to for being able to do this. Firstly thanks to Telf1980 for sharing his access details with me; without those I would've gone round the hard way again and failed! Secondly to Cloaked Up for taking me here and keeping me sane. Finally to Catbalou and Tweek, whose access both got nailed shut before I had an opportunity to do the place; nevertheless I'm grateful for their intel.
So here we are. Cloaked Up, Zotez and I failed at this initially in June after finding one climb too dangerous because of the rain; later being joined by Cloaked Up we try the other side, get in the garden (unfortunately Zotez cut his hand on razor wire and had to leave it), only to find all windows tightly boarded. We find Tweek's access, so Cloaked Up dives in (given how long we waited that day I was pretty damn happy!). Alas, the joy was short lived; the door was nailed shut. So that was a fail. Fastforward to September, and we're in. It has to be said, the owner/security/caretaker is genuinely determined to keep people out; in recent months chavs have broken in which is really sad to see, but you've got boards nearly everywhere, and random doors including those that lead to rooms with windows on the ground floor nailed. So what did the chavs do? Boot a load of drywall in! By the looks of it the chapel was sealed for a certain amount of time, as the connection between the maternity hospital was nailed (was open this year). Only way into the chapel we found was through a hole in the wall too. So after familiarising ourselves with the place, we hit the maternity hospital first.
This is commonly reported on as the "operating theatre". Let me stress that this is not the case, it's a maternity/geriatric hospital! The place had two, side by side, sharing a preparation room. One thing that I really love about operating theatres is the sheer size of the lights; you expect them to be big, but they're absolutely enormous when you see them up close!
The maternity and geriatric hospital extensions, dating from the 1930's and 1950's respectively, is arguably the best part of the site with seemingly little if any alterations being made since being built! Interesting that it closed in 1986 too, 18 years before the rest of the complex.
Does anyone know what the 246 lights are supposed to represent? They're dotted about throughout the hospital, and I spotted one in the chapel funnily enough too.
Despite only closing in 2004, you really cannot trust some of the floors in this place!
Moving on up to the attic, we found some of the hospital paraphernalia stored up there. Couldn't spend much time though, considering there were copious amounts of broken asbestos on the floor. Not to be trusted!
Other people have said that they've found the place among the creepiest and most foreboding places they've been to; I agree wholeheartedly. I can't explain why, but the place just seemed to stir up some really scary emotions in us! As far as I can tell very few people have had the pleasure of doing so, but I had this constant feeling that at any moment the owner would come inside and catch us in the act. Not only that, there was one point at which we heard this random sound in the hospital, which I can only describe as a sawing sound which didn't stop. I never did find out what it was; I didn't want to! The car that we spotted in the courtyard in June was still there; was the owner sitting in the reception, just waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting intruder? We didn't know!
The lower floors of the hospital were used for storing the furniture once the place closed, with one room inaccessible because of all the stuff tipped in there!
I can just imagine the old folks banging away on this! Haha
Or racing in this?
It took a while to find it with (as far as I could tell) the doors leading to it nailed shut, but we found the chapel eventually. Though it had some nice features, it was surprisingly spartan for a place of 19th Century origin. I also found it quite odd seeing only one stained glass window!
Sad to say, however the place is in a poor condition now. Really poor.
Some cock broke the head off the Virgin Mary bust! :mad
On a final note, I have to be honest here. Whilst I'm relieved to have finally ticked it off the list and enjoyed seeing it, I found it disappointing overall. Maybe it was the fact that the place is just a mostly empty 1930s hospital, a chapel and an empty care home that isn't worth looking at? Or maybe it was that, like Pyestock I'd attempted it and failed miserably, and in doing so became too eager to see it? Maybe it's because it's looking far worse than it did last year? Everything perhaps. Nevertheless, it was worth seeing and I did enjoy it for what it offered.
Love as always,
TBM x
At long, long last I've finally managed to get in! First and foremost, however there are some people here I owe a great deal of gratitude to for being able to do this. Firstly thanks to Telf1980 for sharing his access details with me; without those I would've gone round the hard way again and failed! Secondly to Cloaked Up for taking me here and keeping me sane. Finally to Catbalou and Tweek, whose access both got nailed shut before I had an opportunity to do the place; nevertheless I'm grateful for their intel.
So here we are. Cloaked Up, Zotez and I failed at this initially in June after finding one climb too dangerous because of the rain; later being joined by Cloaked Up we try the other side, get in the garden (unfortunately Zotez cut his hand on razor wire and had to leave it), only to find all windows tightly boarded. We find Tweek's access, so Cloaked Up dives in (given how long we waited that day I was pretty damn happy!). Alas, the joy was short lived; the door was nailed shut. So that was a fail. Fastforward to September, and we're in. It has to be said, the owner/security/caretaker is genuinely determined to keep people out; in recent months chavs have broken in which is really sad to see, but you've got boards nearly everywhere, and random doors including those that lead to rooms with windows on the ground floor nailed. So what did the chavs do? Boot a load of drywall in! By the looks of it the chapel was sealed for a certain amount of time, as the connection between the maternity hospital was nailed (was open this year). Only way into the chapel we found was through a hole in the wall too. So after familiarising ourselves with the place, we hit the maternity hospital first.
This is commonly reported on as the "operating theatre". Let me stress that this is not the case, it's a maternity/geriatric hospital! The place had two, side by side, sharing a preparation room. One thing that I really love about operating theatres is the sheer size of the lights; you expect them to be big, but they're absolutely enormous when you see them up close!
The maternity and geriatric hospital extensions, dating from the 1930's and 1950's respectively, is arguably the best part of the site with seemingly little if any alterations being made since being built! Interesting that it closed in 1986 too, 18 years before the rest of the complex.
Despite only closing in 2004, you really cannot trust some of the floors in this place!
Moving on up to the attic, we found some of the hospital paraphernalia stored up there. Couldn't spend much time though, considering there were copious amounts of broken asbestos on the floor. Not to be trusted!
Other people have said that they've found the place among the creepiest and most foreboding places they've been to; I agree wholeheartedly. I can't explain why, but the place just seemed to stir up some really scary emotions in us! As far as I can tell very few people have had the pleasure of doing so, but I had this constant feeling that at any moment the owner would come inside and catch us in the act. Not only that, there was one point at which we heard this random sound in the hospital, which I can only describe as a sawing sound which didn't stop. I never did find out what it was; I didn't want to! The car that we spotted in the courtyard in June was still there; was the owner sitting in the reception, just waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting intruder? We didn't know!
The lower floors of the hospital were used for storing the furniture once the place closed, with one room inaccessible because of all the stuff tipped in there!
I can just imagine the old folks banging away on this! Haha
Or racing in this?
It took a while to find it with (as far as I could tell) the doors leading to it nailed shut, but we found the chapel eventually. Though it had some nice features, it was surprisingly spartan for a place of 19th Century origin. I also found it quite odd seeing only one stained glass window!
Some cock broke the head off the Virgin Mary bust! :mad
On a final note, I have to be honest here. Whilst I'm relieved to have finally ticked it off the list and enjoyed seeing it, I found it disappointing overall. Maybe it was the fact that the place is just a mostly empty 1930s hospital, a chapel and an empty care home that isn't worth looking at? Or maybe it was that, like Pyestock I'd attempted it and failed miserably, and in doing so became too eager to see it? Maybe it's because it's looking far worse than it did last year? Everything perhaps. Nevertheless, it was worth seeing and I did enjoy it for what it offered.
Love as always,
TBM x
