About a year ago when I first started poking around 28 Days Later, Derelict Places and various other Urbex websites, I saw many reports of Silverlands Manor / Orphanage. This place isn't too far from me so it spiked an interest. The infamous wooden stairs always being a focal point of the reports on the manor. I really wanted to visit this place, but being new to the urbex world, and hearing about how good security was here, I was too scared to try it.
A year later and many more explores under my belt I thought it was now time to try it, hopefully keeping my record of never being caught by Secca intact.
Admittedly It was mostly because It seemed the Security seemed to relax a little, so it seemed as good a time to go as any to go visit. As you might tell, i do tend to verge on the side of caution, but I don't think that's always a bad thing.
The Visit
We got there about midday on Sunday. We found the manor easily, but the Stone and paving place next to it was pretty active with fork lifts buzzing about. Because of the time of the year the tree coverage was thin at best, so we had to be very careful not to get spotted as we skirted round the perimeter fence. Getting past the fence was more straight forward than I had imagined. There are PIR sensors and cameras on the manor, so we had to be really careful to choose our entrance point carefully to avoid these. Luckily there was a number of different options to get in safely out of view of these.
We spent about 2 hours exploring the Orphanage. The building is truly stunning, and its fall into disrepair is really sad considering. To date its the 'creepiest' buildings I've been to. The door on the top floor that was being slammed open and closed by the wind did not help.
Getting out was actually harder than getting in, but we did take a different route back avoiding the Stone place next door. I'm glad to report my secca free record goes untarnished once again. I'm sure its only a matter of time anyway.
History
Some History from The Time Chamber.
Nestled on the outskirts of the M25 in Chertsey lays a Grade II listed manor house with a potted history of uses. Originally built in the early 19th century by the Brewer Robert Porter, it was then went through multiple ownerships until it became the Actors Orphanage in 1938. The Actors Orphanage had previously started in Croydon in 1912 and in 1915 found residence in Langley Hall in Berkshire before finally moving to Chertsey in 1938. During World War II, the children were evacuated New York and the building was utilised as a Nurse’s School for the nearby Botley’s Park Hospital, now St Peters Hospital. After the war the building was part run as the nurse’s school and the orphanage; in 1958 it was decided to close the orphanage as the cost of upkeep became too high. It continued as the nurse’s school until the late 1990’s. At the time the national prohibition services were looking for a suitable building for the ‘residential assessment and intervention programmes for adult males with allegations of, or convictions for, sexual offences involving children’. This was met with strong opposition by locals and the plan was ditched in 2002. During this time, the building had had a reported £3.7 Million spent on refurbishment. The building currently resides in a state of ruin and with an uncertain future.
Pictures
I think I went a bit mad with the fish eye again. I really need a proper wide angle lens, but they are expensive for the Fuji X cameras
.
1.
2. The courtyard
3.
4.
5. The very grand entrance
6. The essential stair shots. The craftsmanship is staggering.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13. The Security room, the camera feed no longer working.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18. The building still had power coming into a big unit in the back, 3 phase too. I don't know what this is used for as none of the lights were on.
19.
20. Some rooftop shots.
21.
22.
23. An interesting juxtaposition of dead birds and a brand new unused dishwasher.
24. What is this?
25. These walls could do with a good scrub!
26.
27.
Full Photo album is here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/grahamr123/albums/72157660921885096
A year later and many more explores under my belt I thought it was now time to try it, hopefully keeping my record of never being caught by Secca intact.
Admittedly It was mostly because It seemed the Security seemed to relax a little, so it seemed as good a time to go as any to go visit. As you might tell, i do tend to verge on the side of caution, but I don't think that's always a bad thing.
The Visit
We got there about midday on Sunday. We found the manor easily, but the Stone and paving place next to it was pretty active with fork lifts buzzing about. Because of the time of the year the tree coverage was thin at best, so we had to be very careful not to get spotted as we skirted round the perimeter fence. Getting past the fence was more straight forward than I had imagined. There are PIR sensors and cameras on the manor, so we had to be really careful to choose our entrance point carefully to avoid these. Luckily there was a number of different options to get in safely out of view of these.
We spent about 2 hours exploring the Orphanage. The building is truly stunning, and its fall into disrepair is really sad considering. To date its the 'creepiest' buildings I've been to. The door on the top floor that was being slammed open and closed by the wind did not help.
Getting out was actually harder than getting in, but we did take a different route back avoiding the Stone place next door. I'm glad to report my secca free record goes untarnished once again. I'm sure its only a matter of time anyway.
History
Some History from The Time Chamber.
Nestled on the outskirts of the M25 in Chertsey lays a Grade II listed manor house with a potted history of uses. Originally built in the early 19th century by the Brewer Robert Porter, it was then went through multiple ownerships until it became the Actors Orphanage in 1938. The Actors Orphanage had previously started in Croydon in 1912 and in 1915 found residence in Langley Hall in Berkshire before finally moving to Chertsey in 1938. During World War II, the children were evacuated New York and the building was utilised as a Nurse’s School for the nearby Botley’s Park Hospital, now St Peters Hospital. After the war the building was part run as the nurse’s school and the orphanage; in 1958 it was decided to close the orphanage as the cost of upkeep became too high. It continued as the nurse’s school until the late 1990’s. At the time the national prohibition services were looking for a suitable building for the ‘residential assessment and intervention programmes for adult males with allegations of, or convictions for, sexual offences involving children’. This was met with strong opposition by locals and the plan was ditched in 2002. During this time, the building had had a reported £3.7 Million spent on refurbishment. The building currently resides in a state of ruin and with an uncertain future.
Pictures
I think I went a bit mad with the fish eye again. I really need a proper wide angle lens, but they are expensive for the Fuji X cameras
. 1.
2. The courtyard
3.
4.
5. The very grand entrance
6. The essential stair shots. The craftsmanship is staggering.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13. The Security room, the camera feed no longer working.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18. The building still had power coming into a big unit in the back, 3 phase too. I don't know what this is used for as none of the lights were on.
19.
20. Some rooftop shots.
21.
22.
23. An interesting juxtaposition of dead birds and a brand new unused dishwasher.
24. What is this?
25. These walls could do with a good scrub!
26.
27.
Full Photo album is here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/grahamr123/albums/72157660921885096
