# Leverton Hall Secure Unit – Essex – September 2016



## mockney reject (Oct 17, 2016)

_The History_


Leverton Hall Secure unit was formerly known as Boyles Court and was originally built as a medieval manor house. 
Boyles Court was rebuilt in the 18th century as a country seat. In 1788 the house was described as newly built, and the plan appears to have been much as it is now, with a main block of three storeys and two lower, L-shaped wings.

In a survey of 1788 Boyles was listed not as a manor but as a freehold farm of 110 acres within the manor of South Weald.

About 1807, the farm was bought by Joseph Lescher who left it to his son Joseph S. Lescher. When he died in 1826.

Joseph S. Lescher was a significant contributor of funds for the building of the original RC Church of St Helens in Brentwood (which became a school when a second St Helens was built and later became a cathedral). 

In 1950 not long after the Second World War it was bought by Essex county council.

A fire in 1973 seriously damaged the roof and the top floor of the main block, which have since been restored. 

It became a remand home and in 1980 was an observation and assessment centre and renamed Leverton Hall Secure Unit.

Leverton Hall Secure Unit was a 16 bed welfare secure unit catering for both male and female occupants. 

There were 3 units within the home, 1 of which was allocated just for females.

There was also an 8 bed Children’s Home attached to the secure unit which was utilized as a ‘step down’ facility. The benefits of such were that they were able to offer continuity of care. When a child left secure accommodation and entered the open home, their link worker also accompanied them to continue the work they began, and to support the young person with the difficult transition from secure to open which many young people struggle with.

There was education provision on-site offering a full curriculum for the young people. Enrichment activities were available for young people throughout the entire week and also throughout the school holidays. The activities organized were constructed to help enhance the young person’s personal development and also their social skills.

Leverton Hall, once housed notorious child killer Jon Venables who was responsible for the evil murder of 2 year old James Bulgar in 1993

It closed in 2014 after being rated 'inadequate' by school watchdog Ofsted.

Marden Homes paid around £4m for the site which up until 2014 was a secure children's unit and was operated by Essex County Council.

Questions have been raised about new plans to transform a Grade II listed manor house in into luxury flats.
Proposals submitted to Brentwood Borough Council envisage a development of 13 apartments inside the main house, outside, the secure wing could be demolished to make way for eight detached houses with parking and garages.

_The Explore_


Props to @urbanduck & @slayaaaa for keeping their eyes on this one. Well it seems persistence pays off. 

Visited this one with the usual suspects and a couple of newbies.

After the sat-nav getting us lost, Poxy thing!!!! We eventually found ourselves driving up the lane towards Leverton Hall. It’s a bit of a walk to get to the main building, but hey nothing worth doing was every easy right? 

The outside of the building is pretty lovely and will one day make a great place to live.

Our entrance was interesting and not overly graceful but with a bit of climbing we made our way in.

The place was still mint and very clean inside, with no real signs of decay yet, despite the place being closed in 2014. 

The “cells” were a little spooky/eerie/haunting/freaky (choose whatever Daily Mail quote you wish) one of which had some interesting graffiti in it. Another which I failed to get a picture of was painted almost like a child’s bedroom and was a little off putting.

If you are a lover of glass bricks then this place has them in abundance and is quite stylish in places. 

There was also an abundance of keys, there seemed to be piles of keys absolutely everywhere lol

As always enjoy the pics and go do a visit


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## HughieD (Oct 18, 2016)

Blimey...that is a lot of keys! Great report there.


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## Sam Haltin (Oct 19, 2016)

Nicely done, considering it was at night, made your photos a bit moody and atmospheric.


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## flyboys90 (Oct 19, 2016)

Great write up and shots.


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## Rubex (Oct 19, 2016)

I would love to look around here! Great stuff as always Mockney Reject


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## dmxsta (Oct 24, 2016)

Just made a visit to this fantastic place, scaled the whole building for a good two hours and even climbed to the highest point with no joy, this place seemes locked down and locked down well. Do you reckon they have pacthed the way you got in or did we just not look hard enough?

Thanks, I would love to go back and find a way in here!


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## krela (Oct 24, 2016)

dmxsta said:


> Just made a visit to this fantastic place, scaled the whole building for a good two hours and even climbed to the highest point with no joy, this place seemes locked down and locked down well. Do you reckon they have pacthed the way you got in or did we just not look hard enough?



Who knows? The accessibility of places can change on a daily basis.


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## Potter (Oct 30, 2016)

Great stuff. Rather disturbing given who used to be in there. I'm rather surprised they left all that rather modern equipment in the security office.


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