Nocton Hall & Hospital Lincs. April09

[Runner]

I've read lots of reports on here - thought it was about time I had a go myself, here goes:

Chauffer and myself first visited here a while ago and after seeing the size of the place we decided to return and make a day of it. We went back with Paolo for a look.

The history of the hall and associated hospital are well documented, this part of the report concerns the hall:

The hall was built in 1841 for the 1st Earl of Ripon to replace an earlier building that burnt down in 1834. When America joined WW1, the hall was used as a convalescent home for wounded american officers, it was sold in 1919 but lay empty until 1940 when it was turned into a RAF hospital.

It was used as a clearing station until 1943 when it became home to the US Army Seventh General Hospital which was built in the grounds behind it, the hall was used as the officers club.
After the war the hall became part of the RAF hospital again, was leased to the USAF again and was finally vacated by the RAF in 1995.
The hall became a residential home for a while and then became part of a property development.

On 24th Oct 2004, it was attacked by arsonists, the blaze was brought under control after several hours, by which time the roof had collapsed. Arsonists struck again in 2005, only the walls and cellars remain, still makes for a good explore though.

(Wikipedia and RAF Lincolnshire Info)

Here's the pics:

Views from the residential home annex

Cellars

Playing with lights

Famous dodgy staircase

Mastermind chair

In need of TLC

Thanks for looking.

 

[ashless]

Nice one mate, like what you did with the lights there

 

[Foxylady]

Always enjoying seeing photos of this site. Love the dodgy staircase pics.
Excellent first report, Runner. And welcome to DP, btw.

 

[Black Shuck]

Thats a great first report Runner, I never get tired of this place as there is always a different take on it. Well done.

 

[Runner]

Thanks for the comments folks.

Here's part 2 - the hospital.

In 1943 the hall and grounds were taken over by the US Army again, the hospital was constucted in the hall grounds, it became the United States Army Seventh General Hospital. The hall was used as an officers club.

After the war it was handed over to the RAF to become a 740 bed permanent hospital for Lincolnshire used by locals as well as forces personnel. The decision to close it was taken in March 1983, but by a twist of fate it was taken over again by the US military.

RAF(H) Nocton Hall became a United States Air Force wartime contingency hospital in 1984, 1300 US medical staff were based there during the 1991/2 Gulf War. Fortunatly the hospitals services were required for only 35 casualties during this period, in the later period the hospital was placed on a "care & maintenance" status, 13 US personnel remained until the RAF returned in 1992.

Until 1993 the hospital served as a forward outpatients department, RAF Nocton Hall was handed back to the government on 30th Sept 1995. The hall and grounds have been disposed of for development, meanwhile they stand empty and decaying and exploreable.

The pics:

In through the out door - Theatre exit

Covered corridor

That's entertainment

Forerunner of patientline - no need for a credit card and 2nd mortgage here.

Pathology Lab

Is this the longest corridor in the country?
Over 1/4mile long and about 6ft wide,7ft high - it looks like it goes on into infinity.

Tanks for the memory

Outdoors

This way to have your teeth pulled

Fridges
I think they had been installed when the US set up the contingency hospital in the 80's

82 buildings later

Unknown building - On the north eastern perimeter, not sure what this was. It has a dodgy floor though.

Let me out

Sums it up

Thanks for looking

 

[thirtyfootscrew]

Nice report, I love the way that every report I see shows something a little different - I spent hours there and didn't see lots of the stuff that you did!

 

[chelle]

Excellant stuff

Brilliant report there fella...I havent heard of this before and when i saw the first few pics,i just thought it was gonna be an old house report,then it developed into quite an explore indeed..love that corridor shot and the Sodamn pic lots..well done for a cracking first report.

Welcome too bythe way from Stu

 

[chauffeur]

Nocton

Just a couple of pics, had a great day out with Runner and another guy! fantastic day out.

This too is my first report on dp

 

[sqwasher]

Nice pics from both of you! As others have said you've got some different things in your shots-nice one!

 

[cstevens]

Just got back myself from a first visit to the hospital. Looking at google earth "after" I return I see I covered only a fraction of the place!

Wont post even more pics, but mine are here at :-
http://www.only-photos.co.uk/?folder=content/Decay in the UK/Nocton Hall RAF Hospital/

Quick taster

 

[magoo²]

I like this one mate

 

[cstevens]

Thats a great one, looks like we missed a few bits when we where over there - we didnt even see any stairs lol. I assume these parts where the actual hall rather than the hidden hospital buildings?

 

[Runner]

Thats a great one, looks like we missed a few bits when we where over there - we didnt even see any stairs lol. I assume these parts where the actual hall rather than the hidden hospital buildings?

Yeah, the stairs are in the hall. The first post pics are all from the hall, the next set of shots are the hospital, seemed like the logical way to split it up

 

[cstevens]

Makes sense....I definitely feel another trip or two there. I am sure that every building has not been explored yet, so there might be some gems.

Oh, and a word of warning to all. As we where walking back out through the service road about 200 yrds in front of us on the road was a cat....the size of a dog! - yep, that makes it a "big wild cat", it was a tad smaller than a panther, but not much, so not entirely sure what it was.

My flipping camera was in my bag at this point and this cat stood still as we did and kinda dared us to make a move...then off it went into the woods. So I guess this site there is more to worry about than security!

 

[Runner]

It's a massive site alright, lot of the ward buildings are almost identical, but there's still plenty to see.
We were there 5+ hrs for the hall and hospital and that was a 2nd visit.

Didn't come across that big cat (thankfully!), just a couple of pikeys nicking some pipework!

 

[cstevens]

I reckon the pikeys are done now, as there is NOTHING metal left lol.

We didnt spend that long inside there, as we just had a few hours at St Johns. Plan to revist both for a day each. Just going to get some masks though as both sites did seem a tad dodgy.

And maybe a taser for that cat, which has worried more than anyone busting us.

 

[Runner]

[quote Just going to get some masks though as both sites did seem a tad dodgy.
][/quote]

Definately - there was loads of the stuff in the hospital, especially around the theatre area. We took masks and a change of clothes and cleaned the cameras very carefully afterwards - maybe a bit over the top, but better safe than sorry