Crookham Court Manor - Abandoned (boarding school)

• published: 02 Jan 2015
• views: 66

1st Exploration Report of 2015: Happy New Year to all my channels viewers! Put the kettle on & get comfy with a cuppa, maybe an idea to grab a snack as well. Then settle in to view what was for me by far my largest house explore to-date, other than industrial locations. At least watch the first 15 minutes and i hope you may just end up watching the full explore of almost a full hour. It was a massive property to explore & is an explore i will never forget. I was a little disappointed with some results of my photography & i had to bin a fair few pics due to me still getting to grips with the new camera. Luckily i used both my camera's, the point n shoot for the external buildings & surrounds & the new camera on the interior of the big house. Even after sifting out all the crap i still ended up with well over an hours worth of images that i could use, i then tried to edit it down..Failed there then!! like i said the house was so massive i actually got lost more than once & it took me a while to remember where the way out was. Then on leaving i had a bit of a heavy fall, which could have been far worse than it was as nothing was broken...just a few bruises & a slight dent to my pride..which is supposed to come before a fall i always thought.:( looks as if my ninja moves & climbing days could well be over! Anyhow after dusting myself down i realized where i was and remembering the history of suffering that some of the pupils endured here at the hands of evil, my physical pain faded away & i can only have total respect for those that suffered abuse and found the strength to seek help and then bring the perpetrators to court..i wish that they had got longer sentences than they received...lets all hope that karma or suchlike takes care of any dues they have outstanding. It was expected knowing now the disturbing history, that this explore was going to be different than any i had done before, and it was! for all the beauty of it's location & it's architecture, it was a difficult place to explore and it took me by surprise that those people i never knew or will know, were to be there with each step i took that they once trod before me. The graffiti was nothing new to see, but it wasn't a surprise as i had seen many urbex reports on Crookham Court & i thought that this was another on a long list of places i would never get to visit. If you would like to know more just google it, it's no surprise the amount of history written & available online. P.s. Hi to Dan & Jim, it was nice to meet you both. The look on your face & expletive was priceless! Which i kept in the video as you said it was ok. Thanks for subscribing & stay safe exploring. Happy New Year to all my subscribers & viewers alike. History: Crookham Court Manor House - former school (Abandoned) Nr Thatcham, Berkshire, England. Crookham Court stands on the former site of Crookham Manor House, built around the start of the 14th century and destroyed in 1543, It's said to have been frequented by King Henry VIII for his numerous hunting trips, a relatively short distance from London. Then subsequently Crookham House which was demolished around 1850. The construction of the current building started around this time and continued in two more phases over the next fifty years. The current property that was built around 1850 was at first used as a private family residence & was then to become a school for children of those serving at R.A.F. Greenham Common. It was abandoned for sometime after the USAAF left the area, before the manor was purchased in 1961 & reopened as an independent boarding school for boys. In 1988 there was a high profile case investigation on the BBC TV program "That.s Life" which led to three of the staff being jailed for sexually abusing pupils. In 1990 The schools owner was sentenced to 10 years in prison in a trial at Reading Crown Court, reduced to six years on appeal. since then other cases have been reported & prosecuted with another member of staff at the school appearing at the courts as recently as 2012. With at least one of the guilty reported as committing suicide. For a short time some rooms were converted to flats and again abandoned around 2007 although you wouldn't think it to look at! Since 2012 there have been plans to redevelop Crookham Court & more than 17 acres of land which surround it. If you got this far...WELL DONE!:) Now that's enough of the words..on with the video explore! Music credits: "Unseen Horrors - Distant Tension - Despair & Triumph" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/