What an imposing sight, a daunting red-bricked house over a hundred years old and ripe for exploring.
I wish I could say the inside was as interesting as the cover image, but that would be a lie.
‘Parkhurst'; it was named in 1905, and was a private residence until 1918 when it became 'Eastwood Estate's Children's Home’. According to my history brain, World War I had just finished and I would guess the town of Rotherham would be in quite a state.
It became a shelter for delinquents, orphans, juvenile offenders and what else? The stories of abuse, rape and other scandals lie in the walls somewhere, never to appear again.
There are no recent or older abhorrent abuse news articles about this one which surprises me. It seems almost all of them were hell-holes for those living there during the 1970s and 1980s when this type of behaviour was deemed 'acceptable'.
The former ‘Eastwood Estate's Children's Home’ has been left rotting for the best part of 20 years and it seems little has changed since our visit.
The gate looked sturdy, if a little disused and hosted a rusty-looking lock hiding under a metal shield. Not that it would make much difference when a very climbable wall lurks close by.
The bricks helped somewhat and with a little heave-ho we were inside the ground and walking up a snaking road toward the property.
“Who’s that?”, I whispered to @anidiotexplores. We were not alone.
Two teenagers, one of each sex hung around the front area of the house and took off like frightened rabbits at the sight of us.
...are we that scary... sheesh?...
From this distance I could see getting in was going to present us with little difficulty, unless that hole in the windows was a dastardly mirage, full of promise and lacking in delivery.
We walked up to the window, intent on entering but paused peering intently into the surrounding jungle. Were those pesky urchins still in there, watching our every move, readying the blow-pipes with poisoned darts?
Not a sound, not a whisper, no birds cheeped, it was deadly quiet.
Expecting drama? No such luck, they had well and truly fucked off and we scrambled through the broken window into a damp, cold, chilly, dropping-to-bits, old Edwardian house.
When the ground floor looks like this, you know the upper floors are likely to be much worse, and though you might think the area immediately surrounding the hole could well collapse under your weight, it rarely does.
Only the end of the stairs banister remains, and that was thoroughly covered in stale pigeon shit.
What dismal-looking wallpaper. I accepted the fact that walls looked like turds in the 1980s, but now they look ever the worse.
It was not getting any better. Does the sight of these pastel floral whirls brighten your day or can you feel the vomit rising in your throat?
Like most of these enormous oversized period houses, there was more than one set of stairs. The 'back stairs' contained no carpets and could have been used by the slaves, … er servants and maids of the house.
…'no need to keep those peons warm, force them to go barefoot too'…
It’s quite dramatic but bodes badly for the future of this property. While the upper areas felt reasonably sturdy, it’s a question of... for how long?
More holes in the roof with sunlight filtering through. Not so good when it starts pissing down.
There are some mighty chunky spiders living in 'Eastwood Estate's Children's Home', that's a fact.
As if to emphasise that fact..., this one is not for the arachnophobes.
If only it hosted something other than cobwebs and bird shit. The attic area was in a poor state with more holes.
The area to the central bottom of this image is not a place you DON'T want to jump on unless you want to lose part of your faculties.
Solid brickwork with some lovely holes in the floor.
Some staircases you simply don’t want to touch. Disturbing this vintage bannister full of decaying webs and rotting pigeon shit would be sacrilegious and unforgivable.
These make for some startling shots, even if they look thoroughly disgusting. Breathing in the pungent fumes was not particularly pleasant, although my senses are somewhat dimmed by these repeated experiences.
Well…, that was a bit shit. Not even a ghostly moan or groan from the resident undead..., how disappointing.
From reading other older posts about ‘Eastwood Estate's Children's Home', we missed the cellar that looks like jail cells have been fitted, maybe for the more troublesome 'bad kids' that used to call this 'home'.
The rear of ‘Eastwood Estate's Children's Home' looks like part of it has been ripped away.
The bad-looking brickwork gives it away. Why do they do this, it looks like complete shit now and there's no covering it up?
Our Rotherham explores continued, and they would not improve much.
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