A big thanks to Anthillmob74 for helping me out and posting these photos for me.
There are lots of open windows at St Luke's and close by there was a car park full of work mens cars and vans. There seemed to be a lot of work men activity in some of the old cottages near to the duckpond. I don't know what they were up to, just men in hard hats and yellow fluorescent jackets, banging things. I just minded my own business and tried not to draw attention to myself. I just had a walk round, had some sandwiches and took some photos, keeping my nose out.
There are big security fences blocking off most areas andthey prevented me from going down the roads I wanted to go down. I would have liked to have gone to St Johns and Cameron House Way and where St Margarets had been but the fences stopped me. I saw a landscape gardener truck open a security gate and relock it going down that way, so I presume they are still maintaining something. Anyway the point I am making is that during the week when there was so many people around it would be impossible to have a look inside if you were trying to get in from the main St Luke's and I could not get anywhere else without looking like a complete idiot crawling under the fences. At night time or the weekend it would be different.
The church is St Johns C of E which does look quite pretty. There is an access to the tunnels nearby. The church is quite big but could not get it all in because of the woodland and security fencing nearby, to get a wider shot. There is another lovely little RC Chapel inside the main building at St Luke's off the main corridor, near the Ballroom.
I wanted to get closer to the cricket pavillion and take a nice shot but the green keeper was rolling the pitch so I did not want to interfere with his work. Next time I go I will make it a weekend when it will be nice and quiet. It is a shame they have fenced off the duck pond. Must be to put people off strolling around as though it is a park. I was going to have a picnic by the pond but it spoilt it by having all those fences around, very depressing, like Colditz now. I did manage to find a path through and walk alongside the duckpond but it wasn't as nice being enclosed with the fencing. There were lots of ducklings and goslings waddling about.
A nicer walk would be from the lodge at the Haigton end and walk up the approach where the Water Tower and the Lawns end would be. A nice sunny day and it would be magic. All in all the place looks more and more derelict, dusty, but there are lots of work men around. At the North Lodge, there are loads of building works going on at the Guild Lodge Secure unit as they seem to be putting up another big extension. Basically they have closed down the old Whittingham and re-built modern facilities on the fields next to it.
