History
St Peter's Orphanage for Roman Catholic Boys was established in 1900 at Main Road, Gainford. The purpose-built premises could accommodate 300 boys, aged from 2 to 10 years at their date of admission. The home was run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent De Paul. On 30th August, 1901, St Peter's was accredited for use as a Certified School, allowing it to receive boys boarded out by the workhouse authorities, who paid 6s. a week for each child they placed.
Due to financial pressures, the School was closed in 1984, with the building and land being sold to a local consortium for £130,000. The purchasers subsequently sold off some of the dwellings and converted one wing into a nursing home for the elderly. From the mid-1990s, however, the main building was left standing empty. There are plans to build new homes on the site.
There have been claims of child abuse at the orphanage in the past. Express reporter Joanna Della-Ragione made this video about the orphanage and its past which you can watch here - St Peter's Orphanage.
The Explore
Earlier in the day we had tried Northgate Tower and Audio nightclub. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a way into Northgate Tower and we decided Audio would be better suited for the dark, since it’s surrounded by two car parks. We set of to the orphanage in hope there was a way in, and to our luck there was.
The place splits into two buildings. The main building out front and a gym round the back. We took a look inside the gym first, which was pretty beat up. As expected, there was quite the amount of graffiti around. Some of it was pretty good, however one bit that caught our eye was about ‘Mr Byrne’. Prior to the explore we were unaware of the child abuse claims, however that soon came apparent when we entered the main building.
It took us a good 10 minutes to get inside. We kept trying to climb a 10 foot wall when there was entry point right next to us. We got inside and our first impressions were that it was a death trap. It was obvious the building had suffered serious fire damage and there was debris all over the place. The main staircase had collapsed and multiple electrical wires were sticking out the wall.
Upstairs was even more hit from the fire, as there were gaps in the floor all over the place. One wrong step and you’ve won yourself a trip to A&E. The ‘Mr Byrne’ graffiti was everywhere on the second floor. Every room had different messages about him which made the place quite eerie and chilling. We made our way to the top floor but it was too dangerous to explore. There was about a 10 feet gap in the floor, and none of us were Greg Rutherford so we decided to head back down and head out. This was an interesting explore and we thoroughly enjoyed it, however it’s one of those that I wouldn’t go back to. Since we were there, it’s probably suffered more damage and even more dangerous.
Photos
Front and back of the orphanage
The gym
I can say we didn't find a body
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more!
St Peter's Orphanage for Roman Catholic Boys was established in 1900 at Main Road, Gainford. The purpose-built premises could accommodate 300 boys, aged from 2 to 10 years at their date of admission. The home was run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent De Paul. On 30th August, 1901, St Peter's was accredited for use as a Certified School, allowing it to receive boys boarded out by the workhouse authorities, who paid 6s. a week for each child they placed.
Due to financial pressures, the School was closed in 1984, with the building and land being sold to a local consortium for £130,000. The purchasers subsequently sold off some of the dwellings and converted one wing into a nursing home for the elderly. From the mid-1990s, however, the main building was left standing empty. There are plans to build new homes on the site.
There have been claims of child abuse at the orphanage in the past. Express reporter Joanna Della-Ragione made this video about the orphanage and its past which you can watch here - St Peter's Orphanage.
The Explore
Earlier in the day we had tried Northgate Tower and Audio nightclub. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a way into Northgate Tower and we decided Audio would be better suited for the dark, since it’s surrounded by two car parks. We set of to the orphanage in hope there was a way in, and to our luck there was.
The place splits into two buildings. The main building out front and a gym round the back. We took a look inside the gym first, which was pretty beat up. As expected, there was quite the amount of graffiti around. Some of it was pretty good, however one bit that caught our eye was about ‘Mr Byrne’. Prior to the explore we were unaware of the child abuse claims, however that soon came apparent when we entered the main building.
It took us a good 10 minutes to get inside. We kept trying to climb a 10 foot wall when there was entry point right next to us. We got inside and our first impressions were that it was a death trap. It was obvious the building had suffered serious fire damage and there was debris all over the place. The main staircase had collapsed and multiple electrical wires were sticking out the wall.
Upstairs was even more hit from the fire, as there were gaps in the floor all over the place. One wrong step and you’ve won yourself a trip to A&E. The ‘Mr Byrne’ graffiti was everywhere on the second floor. Every room had different messages about him which made the place quite eerie and chilling. We made our way to the top floor but it was too dangerous to explore. There was about a 10 feet gap in the floor, and none of us were Greg Rutherford so we decided to head back down and head out. This was an interesting explore and we thoroughly enjoyed it, however it’s one of those that I wouldn’t go back to. Since we were there, it’s probably suffered more damage and even more dangerous.
Photos
Front and back of the orphanage
The gym
I can say we didn't find a body
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more!
