- Joined
- Feb 24, 2015
- Messages
- 256
- Reaction score
- 1,146
After alerting fellow explorer RelictaSpiritus to this place being nearby and a last minute scramble to organised a weekend trip, we were making our way over to Norfolk to visit HMP Blunderston
Upon arrival we quickly saw this wasn’t going to be anything easy, after all it is designed to keep people in and everyone else out.
Making our way around the front of the site and establishing the main entrances were locked tight or covered with a pile of rubble, we made our way round the perimeter fence with high hopes discovering nothing but the abandoned prison farm and somewhat high fences, unsurprisingly.
Unfortunately defeated by the prison itself this time around, we did however bump into an ex prison warden who appeared just as we had lost hope. Again, unfortunately other than telling us he worked there for 25 years he would only say simply that there were many things we wouldn’t like to hear about that he had seen over those 25 years.
Upon arrival we quickly saw this wasn’t going to be anything easy, after all it is designed to keep people in and everyone else out.
Making our way around the front of the site and establishing the main entrances were locked tight or covered with a pile of rubble, we made our way round the perimeter fence with high hopes discovering nothing but the abandoned prison farm and somewhat high fences, unsurprisingly.
Unfortunately defeated by the prison itself this time around, we did however bump into an ex prison warden who appeared just as we had lost hope. Again, unfortunately other than telling us he worked there for 25 years he would only say simply that there were many things we wouldn’t like to hear about that he had seen over those 25 years.
Opened in 1963 with four wings (A, B, C & D wings), Blundeston Prison was expanded three times before its closure, firstly in 1975 with the addition of two multi occupancy cell wings (F & G wings), secondly in 2002 with the addition of a Democratic Therapeutic Community wing (I wing), and finally in 2008 with the construction of a 60 cell modular block for prisoners serving life sentences (J wing).
In 1996 the prison came under intense criticism after six inmates escaped whilst being transferred to other jails.
On 4 September 2013, the Ministry of Justice announced that it intended to close Blundeston Prison by March 2014. The prison formally closed in December 2013.