A friend and I decided we would visit this derelict former care home. The building has cropped up numerous times over the last couple of years and has sadly been tourbussed like anything. The photos from 2018 showed the building in almost pristine condition, with some limited vandalism mostly on the upper floors. However, since the site came into the public eye, much more vandalism has occurred. Access was very easy, we just needed to avoid the neighbours – rumour has it they are very nosey! – and negotiate two streams… with me nearly getting wet as a log I was standing on decided to give out under my weight. Fun…(!) As for photos, I couldn’t easily get good angles in the individual flats/rooms as they were so crammed with junk so I mostly stuck to the more photogenic areas of the building.

Here’s a potted history of the place. A Palladian stately home once stood on the site of the current chateauesque building. This original building was gutted by a fire in 1904, but was subsequently rebuilt by the owner, albeit smaller in size. The current building is built of red brick, differing from the greyish-red of the older service wing, which survived the fire. The house has many nicely furnished rooms, including a beautiful and striking oaken staircase. It became a boys’ preparatory school before becoming a care home, which closed sometime in the 2010’s after inspectors condemned the site as “inadequate”. Since then, the building has been left to rot, for sale for £3.5 million. The building itself is not listed, however the neighbouring stable buildings (now a house) and ruins of a medieval chapel in the grounds are Grade II listed, the latter also being a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

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