- Joined
- Dec 11, 2010
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Found this place a ltttle disappointing to start with many of the rooms were plain white wash shells but then i found the staircase. Which made up for what the rest of the place lacked right on with the pics ...
a little history...
Thanet Place was a large mansion with gardens overlooking the sea, previously owned by the “Beef Baron�, Sir Edmund Vesty, which was 400 yards away from the old home. This catered for 24 residential & 20 day care children. All the suitable furniture & fittings were bought to the new house, even the memorial clock which ticked away for many years in the entrance hall of the old St Marys, was given pride of place in the new entrance hall. Though considerably smaller the new premises even had its own chapel.
in 1982 Kent County Council withdrew its financial support for the Home claiming that at £1,600 per week it was too expensive to use, & refused to send anymore children there. A massive protest campaign to save St Marys from closure was backed by the Archbishop & Dean of Canterbury, the Bishops of Maidstone & Dover, plus social workers & head teachers, all supported by a petition of 4,000 signatures. Even the Queen Mother expressed sympathy in a letter, but St Marys finally closed in 1983, & downsized once again, and the house was made into an old peoples home ...
thanks for looking :beer:
a little history...
Thanet Place was a large mansion with gardens overlooking the sea, previously owned by the “Beef Baron�, Sir Edmund Vesty, which was 400 yards away from the old home. This catered for 24 residential & 20 day care children. All the suitable furniture & fittings were bought to the new house, even the memorial clock which ticked away for many years in the entrance hall of the old St Marys, was given pride of place in the new entrance hall. Though considerably smaller the new premises even had its own chapel.
in 1982 Kent County Council withdrew its financial support for the Home claiming that at £1,600 per week it was too expensive to use, & refused to send anymore children there. A massive protest campaign to save St Marys from closure was backed by the Archbishop & Dean of Canterbury, the Bishops of Maidstone & Dover, plus social workers & head teachers, all supported by a petition of 4,000 signatures. Even the Queen Mother expressed sympathy in a letter, but St Marys finally closed in 1983, & downsized once again, and the house was made into an old peoples home ...
thanks for looking :beer:
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