Prompted by @monk's post on Hellingly and my continuation into the lockdown archive series, I thought I would post my old photos from here as everyone seems to be enjoying the old Asylum photos but with the . I'll add a slight twist and include the small addition of a pile of old archive photos someone gifted to me through my website.
For me, Hellingly was the forgotten asylum in the South;; 20 miles to the north were both West Park and Cane Hill brimming with interest and rooms crammed with items to rummage through and they are both foindly remembered by explorers when rose tinted glasses are being worn. Hellingly sat isolated in the middle of the East Sussex countryside over looking the south downs, and for whatever reason it was utterly ruined. It had a certain derelict charm perfect for exploring and photographs alike and we had three enjoyable trips here. There was also a certain ‘I am going to fall through the floor at any moment’ feel to the place, which always adds an element of excitment to an explore. Only a few explorers we know can remember it being anything but a ruin; and that is only because they were local to the buildings and remember it closing. Over the years, I have managed to collect a decent little archive of images and information on Hellingly through other people, archives and eBay, some of which I will share here.
It took us a while to make the journey down to explore Hellingly, as both my brother and I were students at the time, which meant that the small money we had was spent on booze and not fuel! We ended up travelling down just after Christmas in 2008 on a frigidly cold and crisp morning to finally take a look at the Hospital. We decided to approach Hellingly like we had approached many buidings before us, which involved a long trek across the fields, and a small squeeze through a window into a ground floor ward. It turned out that we did not need to do this as we discovered a complete window ripped from its frame a little way down from where we entered! Oh well, this wasn't the first time we have done this, and it definitely won't be the last! We had agreat day skulking around the main buildings, and the Acute Annexe . All I really remember from this explore was how bloody cold it was, and that we discovered the joy of making other explorers jump when you pop out of a room! My second / third visits were over the summer as word was that demolition was imminent. Over the course of three visits, I think we managed to cover every building other than the chapel.
As I mentioned earlier, I have built up quite a good information library concerning Hellingly. Years back now, a pleasant chap messaged through TheTimeChamber saying that he had a whole host of archive photos and plans of hellingly, and would we like to see them? Errrm, yes please! When we finally met him, it turned out that an uncle had worked at the hospital as it was closing and he had seen it fit to rescue a number of important documents, plans and photographs, including a CD of photos taken by a member of staff in the last few years of operation! I learnt more in that day about Hellingly, that I probably ever have; like they used to raise their own Guinea Pigs for the path lab!
I'll post my photos as a comparision of 1980s and 2008/9 - some are an approximate location as I had the archive photos after I took the main photos lol
A few more photos from around the site:
For me, Hellingly was the forgotten asylum in the South;; 20 miles to the north were both West Park and Cane Hill brimming with interest and rooms crammed with items to rummage through and they are both foindly remembered by explorers when rose tinted glasses are being worn. Hellingly sat isolated in the middle of the East Sussex countryside over looking the south downs, and for whatever reason it was utterly ruined. It had a certain derelict charm perfect for exploring and photographs alike and we had three enjoyable trips here. There was also a certain ‘I am going to fall through the floor at any moment’ feel to the place, which always adds an element of excitment to an explore. Only a few explorers we know can remember it being anything but a ruin; and that is only because they were local to the buildings and remember it closing. Over the years, I have managed to collect a decent little archive of images and information on Hellingly through other people, archives and eBay, some of which I will share here.
It took us a while to make the journey down to explore Hellingly, as both my brother and I were students at the time, which meant that the small money we had was spent on booze and not fuel! We ended up travelling down just after Christmas in 2008 on a frigidly cold and crisp morning to finally take a look at the Hospital. We decided to approach Hellingly like we had approached many buidings before us, which involved a long trek across the fields, and a small squeeze through a window into a ground floor ward. It turned out that we did not need to do this as we discovered a complete window ripped from its frame a little way down from where we entered! Oh well, this wasn't the first time we have done this, and it definitely won't be the last! We had agreat day skulking around the main buildings, and the Acute Annexe . All I really remember from this explore was how bloody cold it was, and that we discovered the joy of making other explorers jump when you pop out of a room! My second / third visits were over the summer as word was that demolition was imminent. Over the course of three visits, I think we managed to cover every building other than the chapel.
As I mentioned earlier, I have built up quite a good information library concerning Hellingly. Years back now, a pleasant chap messaged through TheTimeChamber saying that he had a whole host of archive photos and plans of hellingly, and would we like to see them? Errrm, yes please! When we finally met him, it turned out that an uncle had worked at the hospital as it was closing and he had seen it fit to rescue a number of important documents, plans and photographs, including a CD of photos taken by a member of staff in the last few years of operation! I learnt more in that day about Hellingly, that I probably ever have; like they used to raise their own Guinea Pigs for the path lab!
I'll post my photos as a comparision of 1980s and 2008/9 - some are an approximate location as I had the archive photos after I took the main photos lol
A few more photos from around the site:
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