# Sandhill Park Mental Hospital, Nr. Taunton.



## LivingFire

Hi everyone, this is my first report!

Copy & pasted from Wikipedia:_
"Sandhill Park in Bishops Lydeard, Somerset, England was built as a county house around 1720. It was later used as a prisoner of war camp, home for handicapped children and later as a military and civilian hospital."_

The grounds are supposedly haunted, and legend has it that many businesses have taken up residence in the buildings since the hospital's closure, but all have suddenly left with no clear reason, leaving lots of paperwork and equipment behind.

The site is made up of several buildings and walled gardens. The newer buildings are thoroughly trashed, there is not a single pane of glass that has been left unsmashed, and the walls are kicked in and scrawled over. The older buildings are less damaged, but many are in a sorry state. However, there are still many interesting discoveries to be had at Sandhill. 

Anyway, less talk, more pictures.

Welcome to Sandhill Park, home of Blazes. We'll come to that later .






A switch and strange wall markings in what looks like an old barn.





Tennis courts





Acland house















3 Blue Tiles





Toilet





Firefighting hose





Hot drinks





One of the highlights of the place but very hard to get to, the fire engine. This was left behind by Blazes Fire Museum.















Inside the fire museum.










Museum cafeteria


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## lilli

Someone has broken the windscreen of the fire engine!! It was intact in February


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## samsmeg123

very nice, very nice, excellent skillllllz


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## LivingFire

lillimouse said:


> Someone has broken the windscreen of the fire engine!! It was intact in February



Yeah, in fact every window in the fire engine is broken, it's filled with shards of glass. A real shame because it's a beautiful artefact.


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## LivingFire

The trashed "Sun Ward"


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## Foxylady

Great report and pics, LivingFire. I've been meaning to get over there myself at some point but never got around to it.
Welcome to DP, btw.


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## Earth Worm Jim

Ooh a big red fire engine, groovy. Looks like a fun place. Being haunted bonus, Evil Jim and I can go and scare the *&%£ out of some ghosts.


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## Foxylady

Hi LivingFire. If you read my comments from your inbox before I edited them out, please take no notice of them. It seemed funny at the time, then I realised it was thoughtless, so please accept my apologies.


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## LivingFire

Foxylady said:


> Hi LivingFire. If you read my comments from your inbox before I edited them out, please take no notice of them. It seemed funny at the time, then I realised it was thoughtless, so please accept my apologies.



Hahaha, no I didn't see them, but now I'm curious!

Thanks for the comments everyone .


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## Saz123

hot drinks anyone?


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## spacepunk

Nice one man.


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## greenvan

*another visitor*

Hello everyone!
Went up to Sandhill on 26th August on my bicycle from Taunton. Its easy to walk/cycle up from the locked gate which has a walkway space by the side. The old house was a proper stately home with perhaps an orangery at the side all looking over lovely countryside. In its day it might have had the Capability Brown landscaper influencing. I looked inside a few buildings mainly the single storeys. Saw an old printing machine left behind which could been used by an architect's office. Most of all I got very spooked and felt like running away. I've never seen such a badly vandalised site with everything trashed. It's not what you expect to see in a country area. Because I was alone I was limited to exploring and worried for my own safety. I think this would be a fab place for us DS members to meet up and expore. 
Regards
William


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## huggles

Looks like a really nice place to explore. I'm shocked they left the fire engine - someone must have wanted to buy it.


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## Fusion87

Went there today, on first impressions i was hoping for something much like Little Poland but was still worth the mileage.

Some dodgy characters walking around, most likely looking for stuff to steal.

Some very interesting graffiti from the locals "If your still here then you have balls" great note about chavs as well.

Will upload some images once i've gone through them.


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## krela

Fusion87 I've edited your post. Please read the site rules before posting again. Particularly the one about not no mention of access or security details.


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## Fusion87

ah right, forgot about that sorry.


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## Fusion87

http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardtharvey/

photos from sandhill, just tried to link it directly so the images would show up but it didnt work, does anyone know how?


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## markymark1

did you not manage to get in the main house ? active pir in there tho


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## v-w-chick

plz may i ask wot 'pir' is plz?


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## Anthillmob74

as you ask i second that, what is PIR?

sorry. always confused the hell otu of me. some kind of alarm i gather.


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## RichardB

Passive Infra Red I think. It's a sensor that can detect movement, as seen on crappy Halogen security lights.


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## JulesP

RichardB said:


> Passive Infra Red I think. It's a sensor that can detect movement, as seen on crappy Halogen security lights.



And alarms


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## GeorgieKirrin

This looks like a great explore - I love that pic of the toilet. All the greenery makes it look like the cleanest bog in the world!


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## lilli

The fire engine is no longer there!


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## FieldyM

v-w-chick said:


> plz may i ask wot 'pir' is plz?





Anthillmob74 said:


> as you ask i second that, what is PIR?



A Pyroelectric InfraRed sensor (PIR sensor) is an electronic device that measures infrared (IR) light radiating from objects in its field of view. Because it does not emit any energy, it is often mistakenly called a Passive Infrared Sensor. PIR sensors are often used in the construction of PIR-based motion detectors (see below). Apparent motion is detected when an infrared source with one temperature, such as a human, passes in front of an infrared source with another temperature, such as a wall.

All objects emit what is known as black body radiation. It is usually infrared radiation that is invisible to the human eye but can be detected by electronic devices designed for such a purpose. The term passive in this instance means that the PIR device does not emit an infrared beam but merely passively accepts incoming infrared radiation.

The PID can be thought of as a kind of infrared camera that remembers the amount of infrared energy focused on its surface. Once power is applied to the PID, the electronics in the PID shortly settle into a quiescent state and energize a small relay. This relay controls a set of electrical contacts that are usually connected to the detection input of a burglar alarm control panel. If the amount of infrared energy focused on the pyroelectric sensor changes within a configured time period, the device will switch the state of the alarm relay. The alarm relay is typically a "normally closed (NC)" relay, also known as a "Form B" relay.

A person entering a monitored area is detected when the infrared energy emitted from the intruder's body is focused by a Fresnel lens or a mirror segment and overlaps a section on the chip that had previously been looking at some much cooler part of the protected area. That portion of the chip is now much warmer than when the intruder wasn't there. As the intruder moves, so does the hot spot on the surface of the chip. This moving hot spot causes the electronics connected to the chip to de-energize the relay, operating its contacts, thereby activating the detection input on the alarm control panel. Conversely, if an intruder were to try to defeat a PID, perhaps by holding some sort of thermal shield between himself and the PID, a corresponding 'cold' spot moving across the face of the chip will also cause the relay to de-energize — unless the thermal shield has the same temperature as the objects behind it.


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## Potter

That looks a fantastic place.

I wonder where the fire engine has gone and who's took it?

I would love to explore this one.


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## Evilgenius

The fire engine has gone? I was up there a few months ago and it was there, i think to move it would be a hell of a job to!


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## dangerous dave

we had a look about n did not see it


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## markymark1

RichardB said:


> Passive Infra Red I think. It's a sensor that can detect movement, as seen on crappy Halogen security lights.



when i was last in there (late last year) there was only 1 that was working which was down stairs to the left of the main entrance. 10 mins later a short bloke (and dog ) came rushing up the road and burst in on us.basically said to leave the police are on the way.they never showed tho but we left as asked


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## magoo²

Loving that fire engine nice one


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