Just to start of this is my first report on here so go easy if i dont do something right.
Me and my partner have been doing this for a few months now and have been to a few places including a few tourbus locations: Keepers Cottage Stud, The Springs Hotel and the F1 Caterham Technolocgy Centre to name a few.
We’re based in Dorset so as many of you know its pretty dead down here for explores but we make do.
Anyway without further a do heres what i think is a report worthy post and I hope you guys like it.
History
In 1722, Westbury was purchased by an Irishman, Sir Peter Warren, who in 1745 captured Louisburg on behalf of the New England colonies and was promoted to rear admiral of the blue. He captured three French ships worth £1,000,000 – a fortune. In 1747 he won a great naval victory off Cape Finestere and was made a Knight of the Bath. He married a fabulously rich American lady, Susanna daughter of Stephen de Lancey. The combined wealth enabled them to build a fine Palladian house at Westbury, and to commission the celebrated early 18th century landscape gardener Charles Bridgeman to design the grounds..
The approach to the house was along a tree-lined drive off the road between the villages of East Meon and West Meon. The drive looped into an oval on the north side of the house, and on the south side were pleasure grounds. Surrounding the house and gardens was a working estate with a farmyard, barns and stables, fields and timber plantations.
In the early 19th century, Westbury passed to Warren’s grand-daughter, Suzannah Maria, who had married her first cousin, Viscount Gage. (The first Baron Gage of Castlebar and Viscount Gage of Castle Island, had been ennobled in 1720, under the Irish Peerage.) The Gage family was based in Firle, West Sussex, and the couple divided their time between there and Westbury
The Great Fire
Westbury was bought from the Gage family in 1866 by John Delaware Lewis. In 1904, the Times of London reported the heroism of his son, Colonel Le Roy Lewis, in saving the lives of some of his domestic staff from a devastating fire which destroyed the Palladian mansion:
‘The escape of the occupants was most exciting. The French governess, who occupied a bedroom at the rear of the main part of the house, raised the alarm at about 3am. Her cries were heard by Colonel Le Roy-Lewis, who immediately did what he could to rouse the family. Rushing out of his bedroom he found the staircase burning and the corridors filled with smoke, and all means of escape cut off. His first impulse was to save his five children, and he ran through the flames to the children’s wing and found that that part of the house was safe. Getting out of a window, he scrambled along a narrow ledge to a stack pipe, down which he slid to the ground, a distance of about 40 ft. He rushed to the stables, and with some difficulty roused the stablemen, and with the aid of three of them tried to raise a heavy ladder to the French governess’ window, but it fell and broke.’
‘Owing to the efforts of Colonel Le Roy-Lewis himself, no lives were lost by fire, but the housekeeper, an elderly woman named Jane Henley, who had been in the service of the family for many years, died on the roof from shock and fright before she could be rescued.’
‘The mansion itself is an old one, standing in a well-wooded park of 500 acres, and is in the Queen Anne style. It contained many fine pictures and some rich carving by Gibbons. Most of the rooms were wainscotted in oak, and there was a fine library. All these have been destroyed, only a few articles of furniture being saved. The family lost all their personal belongings.’
The gallant Colonel lost no time in rebuilding the mansion, regardless of cost. Ground-floor rooms included a ‘saloon or lounge’ (45ft by 27ft), with oak-panelled walls and housing a ‘three-manual organ, electrically blown’, an elegant drawing room (72ft by 21ft), fitted with mahogany glazed bookcases of Chippendale design, a dining room (32ft by 21ft), with painted panel walls; plus a study, boudoir and billiards room…. and so it went on, three floors of Edwardian comfort, including a passenger lift and central heating.
The estate was broken up in 1924, when Westbury House became a well-known and successful preparatory school, a use that continued for many years, until the 1980s when it was converted into a nursing home.
After many investigations and CQC inspections the nursing home was shut down because of neglect and abuse that supposedly took place.
The Explore
We started by parking down a little country lane to meet a fellow explorer, whom I should mention but im not sure whether they’d want to be named or not so i wont for now.
We went through the forest, cutting through nettles and bush in an attempt to avoid the front due to its close proximity neighbours who I have heard are very active and have been known to call the police upon any sign of visitors. The trek was fairly short and easy and in no time we were stood behind this glorious looking place.
After scouting around the place looked like it was locked down and secure, but thanks to the unamed explorer, we found our way in. *NOTE - coming pictures have been jumbled so access is not easily figured out.
Once in we walked around a bit, amazed by the contents and arcitecture inside. The first floor was reasonably untouched and had no signs of vandals with prescription pills, unopened sharps and medical equipment still left about.
One of the things that will stick with me is one of the first rooms that we delved into. A cardboard box in the middle of the room left there for time to pass by. Of course we had to have a look inside and in there behold belongings left inside. Laminated pieces of card/paper who to some would be junk but to the owners of the contents would allow them to look back on the years. Old ration cards, newspapers from the war times and other personal letter and reminders revealed a sad, eventful insight into the life of the inhabitant.
Further on, we stumbled across a medical room packed full of supplies some of which really should have been left and to be quite honest should be enough reason to get the owners in a lot of trouble again.
We ventured on, walking over NHS prepaid prescription cards, we stumbled upon the main entrance and stairway with a guitar on a wheelchair to one side. This part of the building did look older than the previous interior we had seen and was made out of a lot of what i believe is solid oak wood (im not an expert). Nonethe less, we decided to go further on the 1st floor and venture up the stairs later.
We climbed through the reception window as the main doors were barricaded shut and discovered more shocking paperwork which again should have got the place into more trouble for being left there. Filing cabinets were filled full of information. Money related documents, patient and other sensitive information, CQC inspections and a load more files were all just left. Will have to be careful with what I post as I could easily post something I shouldnt by mistake. A locked safe was also sat there locked with no key in sight.
With the locked safe unlockable for now, we continued and found a big room with various personal belongings, staff equipment and notes, a couple of pianos, VHS tapes and DVD’s and loads more stuff. Again, more private information breached, progress sheets. Was pretty interesting having a look at everything we could find including a photo of everyone that was there, but again was a reminder of how cruel life can be.
*NOTE to Admins - Im unsure whether pictures of the people that live here can be posted so I have not posted it but please inform me if I can do otherwise.
This is where things started to get eerie. We moved onto the main room that I had seen in a picture before. All was good, we had a little wonder around the room looking at some of the books in the shelfs which are pictured in some of the historic pictures I have seen before. We also found ourselves looking for the 8 Ball for the pool table that was there (which we never found) and fidled with the many wheelchairs left to deteriorate. After looking around this room for a good while we started hearing strange things. Loud thuds and bangs echoed the around the building and caused an eerie tension in the room. We froze, looking at eachother wondering what was going on. A short while passed and we continued our explore. I do have evidence of these bangs but im unsure how to post videos. This room however I would say is the main room to explore with lots to see and plenty of cinematic photos to be taken, something im not good at.
After a couple more rooms we eventually made it to the upper level. Vandalism was present here, but not too much. We found it odd how the upper level was the only part of this explore that had been vandalised and had obviously had a squatter or two living here at some point. Im going to skip this level on this post as there is too much to mention and too many rooms to talk about, you need to see it for yoyrself to be honest. Some empty, some vandalised, some with belonging in and some just left rotting. Loads of furniture and lifting equipment worth thousands of pounds have been left. Roof access would be possible, but with day light disappearing into the horizon, we decided we would rather explore more and maybe come back another time to get on the roof.
The basement. After looking around the ground floor and the upper floor, we then descended to the basement. It really did get dark and cold down there. Plenty of cool stuff down here to follow the trend of the house so far. Information about the Dr who ran the home, her diplomacy paper in anestetics, letters to and from her about some sort of new job in the medical industry along with what we believe was a hydrotherapy pool. We also found some cheque receipts with some fairly big numbers that looked fairly legit. Some old minibus seats were also scattered around the place. The basement itself seemed to be where the washing department, maintence rooms and kitchen were located. First was the washing room. The washing machines were big which is what youd expect from a nursing home with many residents, many different cleaning products all over the room.
Next was what I would say was an arts and crafts room. Paint, pencils and other art related products were lying about here and there. Original flooring was also exposed in some corners of the room.
The next room was where the hydrotherapy pool is. It had obviously been dismantled partially and filled with nursing home equipment. It also seemed to be where the owner/Dr seemed to spend her time when dealing with the behind the scene stuff with the care home. A bunch of old indian styled clothes were also here along with her diploma.
Futher on in this room was a little out of place window that seem to go into the underneath of the house. I did delve into this area but wasnt much to see other than a oddly and rather creepily postioned chair.
We then went back on ourselves and headed past the elevator which in itself looks very dated. We went past a few rooms which i wont go into too much detail as again its something to explore yourself but to summerize there was a maintenence room full of stuff, a weird room with old projector pictures and persumably a pikeys stash of led.
Finally was the kitchen. This part stank thanks to a few fridges being left open for stuff to rot. Not much to say here other than the obvious. Just a load of kitchen units about.
We left this place a bit wierded out as the way we had come in had changed, cant go into detail as it would reveal the access. We looked back upon the house amazed at how such a building could hold so much and tell such a story yet be left there to be forgotten, with its residents moved on.
I really have skipped so much, and if you ever figure out the way in youll understand how much my pictures dont do this place justice and describe how much there is here.
Hope you enjoyed this long read, ill finish this with a few more pictures I took.
Peace out!
View attachment 780326
Me and my partner have been doing this for a few months now and have been to a few places including a few tourbus locations: Keepers Cottage Stud, The Springs Hotel and the F1 Caterham Technolocgy Centre to name a few.
We’re based in Dorset so as many of you know its pretty dead down here for explores but we make do.
Anyway without further a do heres what i think is a report worthy post and I hope you guys like it.
Westbury House
History
In 1722, Westbury was purchased by an Irishman, Sir Peter Warren, who in 1745 captured Louisburg on behalf of the New England colonies and was promoted to rear admiral of the blue. He captured three French ships worth £1,000,000 – a fortune. In 1747 he won a great naval victory off Cape Finestere and was made a Knight of the Bath. He married a fabulously rich American lady, Susanna daughter of Stephen de Lancey. The combined wealth enabled them to build a fine Palladian house at Westbury, and to commission the celebrated early 18th century landscape gardener Charles Bridgeman to design the grounds..
The approach to the house was along a tree-lined drive off the road between the villages of East Meon and West Meon. The drive looped into an oval on the north side of the house, and on the south side were pleasure grounds. Surrounding the house and gardens was a working estate with a farmyard, barns and stables, fields and timber plantations.
In the early 19th century, Westbury passed to Warren’s grand-daughter, Suzannah Maria, who had married her first cousin, Viscount Gage. (The first Baron Gage of Castlebar and Viscount Gage of Castle Island, had been ennobled in 1720, under the Irish Peerage.) The Gage family was based in Firle, West Sussex, and the couple divided their time between there and Westbury
The Great Fire
Westbury was bought from the Gage family in 1866 by John Delaware Lewis. In 1904, the Times of London reported the heroism of his son, Colonel Le Roy Lewis, in saving the lives of some of his domestic staff from a devastating fire which destroyed the Palladian mansion:
‘The escape of the occupants was most exciting. The French governess, who occupied a bedroom at the rear of the main part of the house, raised the alarm at about 3am. Her cries were heard by Colonel Le Roy-Lewis, who immediately did what he could to rouse the family. Rushing out of his bedroom he found the staircase burning and the corridors filled with smoke, and all means of escape cut off. His first impulse was to save his five children, and he ran through the flames to the children’s wing and found that that part of the house was safe. Getting out of a window, he scrambled along a narrow ledge to a stack pipe, down which he slid to the ground, a distance of about 40 ft. He rushed to the stables, and with some difficulty roused the stablemen, and with the aid of three of them tried to raise a heavy ladder to the French governess’ window, but it fell and broke.’
‘Owing to the efforts of Colonel Le Roy-Lewis himself, no lives were lost by fire, but the housekeeper, an elderly woman named Jane Henley, who had been in the service of the family for many years, died on the roof from shock and fright before she could be rescued.’
‘The mansion itself is an old one, standing in a well-wooded park of 500 acres, and is in the Queen Anne style. It contained many fine pictures and some rich carving by Gibbons. Most of the rooms were wainscotted in oak, and there was a fine library. All these have been destroyed, only a few articles of furniture being saved. The family lost all their personal belongings.’
The gallant Colonel lost no time in rebuilding the mansion, regardless of cost. Ground-floor rooms included a ‘saloon or lounge’ (45ft by 27ft), with oak-panelled walls and housing a ‘three-manual organ, electrically blown’, an elegant drawing room (72ft by 21ft), fitted with mahogany glazed bookcases of Chippendale design, a dining room (32ft by 21ft), with painted panel walls; plus a study, boudoir and billiards room…. and so it went on, three floors of Edwardian comfort, including a passenger lift and central heating.
The estate was broken up in 1924, when Westbury House became a well-known and successful preparatory school, a use that continued for many years, until the 1980s when it was converted into a nursing home.
After many investigations and CQC inspections the nursing home was shut down because of neglect and abuse that supposedly took place.
The Explore
We started by parking down a little country lane to meet a fellow explorer, whom I should mention but im not sure whether they’d want to be named or not so i wont for now.
We went through the forest, cutting through nettles and bush in an attempt to avoid the front due to its close proximity neighbours who I have heard are very active and have been known to call the police upon any sign of visitors. The trek was fairly short and easy and in no time we were stood behind this glorious looking place.
After scouting around the place looked like it was locked down and secure, but thanks to the unamed explorer, we found our way in. *NOTE - coming pictures have been jumbled so access is not easily figured out.
Once in we walked around a bit, amazed by the contents and arcitecture inside. The first floor was reasonably untouched and had no signs of vandals with prescription pills, unopened sharps and medical equipment still left about.
One of the things that will stick with me is one of the first rooms that we delved into. A cardboard box in the middle of the room left there for time to pass by. Of course we had to have a look inside and in there behold belongings left inside. Laminated pieces of card/paper who to some would be junk but to the owners of the contents would allow them to look back on the years. Old ration cards, newspapers from the war times and other personal letter and reminders revealed a sad, eventful insight into the life of the inhabitant.
Further on, we stumbled across a medical room packed full of supplies some of which really should have been left and to be quite honest should be enough reason to get the owners in a lot of trouble again.
We ventured on, walking over NHS prepaid prescription cards, we stumbled upon the main entrance and stairway with a guitar on a wheelchair to one side. This part of the building did look older than the previous interior we had seen and was made out of a lot of what i believe is solid oak wood (im not an expert). Nonethe less, we decided to go further on the 1st floor and venture up the stairs later.
We climbed through the reception window as the main doors were barricaded shut and discovered more shocking paperwork which again should have got the place into more trouble for being left there. Filing cabinets were filled full of information. Money related documents, patient and other sensitive information, CQC inspections and a load more files were all just left. Will have to be careful with what I post as I could easily post something I shouldnt by mistake. A locked safe was also sat there locked with no key in sight.
With the locked safe unlockable for now, we continued and found a big room with various personal belongings, staff equipment and notes, a couple of pianos, VHS tapes and DVD’s and loads more stuff. Again, more private information breached, progress sheets. Was pretty interesting having a look at everything we could find including a photo of everyone that was there, but again was a reminder of how cruel life can be.
*NOTE to Admins - Im unsure whether pictures of the people that live here can be posted so I have not posted it but please inform me if I can do otherwise.
This is where things started to get eerie. We moved onto the main room that I had seen in a picture before. All was good, we had a little wonder around the room looking at some of the books in the shelfs which are pictured in some of the historic pictures I have seen before. We also found ourselves looking for the 8 Ball for the pool table that was there (which we never found) and fidled with the many wheelchairs left to deteriorate. After looking around this room for a good while we started hearing strange things. Loud thuds and bangs echoed the around the building and caused an eerie tension in the room. We froze, looking at eachother wondering what was going on. A short while passed and we continued our explore. I do have evidence of these bangs but im unsure how to post videos. This room however I would say is the main room to explore with lots to see and plenty of cinematic photos to be taken, something im not good at.
After a couple more rooms we eventually made it to the upper level. Vandalism was present here, but not too much. We found it odd how the upper level was the only part of this explore that had been vandalised and had obviously had a squatter or two living here at some point. Im going to skip this level on this post as there is too much to mention and too many rooms to talk about, you need to see it for yoyrself to be honest. Some empty, some vandalised, some with belonging in and some just left rotting. Loads of furniture and lifting equipment worth thousands of pounds have been left. Roof access would be possible, but with day light disappearing into the horizon, we decided we would rather explore more and maybe come back another time to get on the roof.
The basement. After looking around the ground floor and the upper floor, we then descended to the basement. It really did get dark and cold down there. Plenty of cool stuff down here to follow the trend of the house so far. Information about the Dr who ran the home, her diplomacy paper in anestetics, letters to and from her about some sort of new job in the medical industry along with what we believe was a hydrotherapy pool. We also found some cheque receipts with some fairly big numbers that looked fairly legit. Some old minibus seats were also scattered around the place. The basement itself seemed to be where the washing department, maintence rooms and kitchen were located. First was the washing room. The washing machines were big which is what youd expect from a nursing home with many residents, many different cleaning products all over the room.
Next was what I would say was an arts and crafts room. Paint, pencils and other art related products were lying about here and there. Original flooring was also exposed in some corners of the room.
The next room was where the hydrotherapy pool is. It had obviously been dismantled partially and filled with nursing home equipment. It also seemed to be where the owner/Dr seemed to spend her time when dealing with the behind the scene stuff with the care home. A bunch of old indian styled clothes were also here along with her diploma.
Futher on in this room was a little out of place window that seem to go into the underneath of the house. I did delve into this area but wasnt much to see other than a oddly and rather creepily postioned chair.
We then went back on ourselves and headed past the elevator which in itself looks very dated. We went past a few rooms which i wont go into too much detail as again its something to explore yourself but to summerize there was a maintenence room full of stuff, a weird room with old projector pictures and persumably a pikeys stash of led.
Finally was the kitchen. This part stank thanks to a few fridges being left open for stuff to rot. Not much to say here other than the obvious. Just a load of kitchen units about.
We left this place a bit wierded out as the way we had come in had changed, cant go into detail as it would reveal the access. We looked back upon the house amazed at how such a building could hold so much and tell such a story yet be left there to be forgotten, with its residents moved on.
I really have skipped so much, and if you ever figure out the way in youll understand how much my pictures dont do this place justice and describe how much there is here.
Hope you enjoyed this long read, ill finish this with a few more pictures I took.
Peace out!
View attachment 780326
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