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Report - - Stacklands Retreat - West Kingsdown, Kent - October 2016 | Other Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Stacklands Retreat - West Kingsdown, Kent - October 2016

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Grom

Camera Drowner
Regular User
Visited here with Brewtal, a really nice explore but very trashed.

History

Stacklands Retreat is a religious retreat situated in quite a secluded location. History is actually a wide and varied with stories claiming that the site is haunted to claims that the founder turned to satanism and sacrificed the priests.


According "the Society of Retreat Conductors"

'The members had from the start very ambitious ideas about what the best retreat house would be like. The Vision article of 1924 had described a house with three wings, one for men, one for women and another for children, grouped around a cruciform church with a fourth wing for the resident community with their own library and common room. In 1927, an estate near West Kingsdown Kent, some 20 miles from London and close to Wrotham, was purchased by Bowker and presented by him to the Society. It consisted of some 100 acres, with woodland and two cottages, and became known as Stacklands. One cottage was used to house a forester to work on the estate, and the other was available to members as a country retreat. The architect Mr H Gibbons of Abbey House Westminster was appointed to draw up plans, and his architectural model of the great project, (the children’s wing had disappeared by this stage), was displayed at the Anglo-Catholic Congress meeting in 1930, attracting much interest. The two wings would each have accommodation for some thirty retreatants. At about the same time, a pamphlet, written by Fr Frank de Jonge during his year in residence as a priest associate, was published to share the dream of this complex with a wider public. He described a house cut off from the surrounding world by its wood and looking over the beautiful Knatt valley to Water Wood on the other side, an area which had already been acquired for the Society by Major Bowker. Individual rooms for the retreatants were to be spacious and private, furnished in such a way as to encourage devotion (L 3)'

More recently the place got some news (When I say news, I mean the awful newspapers like the Daily star, express, The Sun etc) coverage when some 'Ghostbusters' visited to give the building an Exorcism (Lol).


ZE5wl1W.jpg




The Explore

So I visited here with Brewtal from over at DP. It was a pretty chilled, especially as the place is completely open and just off a bridleway with us having to hid from the occasional dog walker.

There are 3 building at Stacklands. Two almost identical long buildings which were used and housing for Men and Women. The middle is what I am guessing was the main house and kitchens.

The place is completely trashed with the middle building very fire damaged. The two long housing buildings were surprisingly structurally intact, although the asbestos roof tiles have fallen down and are scattered about.

I've started experimenting with HDR, although I'm trying to avoid those horrible pukefests of colour that you see all to often, so hopefully its subtle!

Didn't get any time to get any drone shots this time however :(

Anyway, Enjoy!


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30555484742_2be2a65765_b.jpg


30635844536_40e154e0f7_b.jpg


30584440521_cccb40f986_b.jpg


30040885144_71f0a444d9_b.jpg


30038673533_c0cc0fcd27_b.jpg


30040906424_f21056cba6_b.jpg


30672271545_3ac92592dc_b.jpg


30038723573_49d01fe6a9_b.jpg


30635925526_64228405a7_b.jpg


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30555637982_f450e3ffa3_b.jpg
 

doingAlevels

28DL Member
28DL Member
Visited here with Brewtal, a really nice explore but very trashed.

History

Stacklands Retreat is a religious retreat situated in quite a secluded location. History is actually a wide and varied with stories claiming that the site is haunted to claims that the founder turned to satanism and sacrificed the priests.


According "the Society of Retreat Conductors"

'The members had from the start very ambitious ideas about what the best retreat house would be like. The Vision article of 1924 had described a house with three wings, one for men, one for women and another for children, grouped around a cruciform church with a fourth wing for the resident community with their own library and common room. In 1927, an estate near West Kingsdown Kent, some 20 miles from London and close to Wrotham, was purchased by Bowker and presented by him to the Society. It consisted of some 100 acres, with woodland and two cottages, and became known as Stacklands. One cottage was used to house a forester to work on the estate, and the other was available to members as a country retreat. The architect Mr H Gibbons of Abbey House Westminster was appointed to draw up plans, and his architectural model of the great project, (the children’s wing had disappeared by this stage), was displayed at the Anglo-Catholic Congress meeting in 1930, attracting much interest. The two wings would each have accommodation for some thirty retreatants. At about the same time, a pamphlet, written by Fr Frank de Jonge during his year in residence as a priest associate, was published to share the dream of this complex with a wider public. He described a house cut off from the surrounding world by its wood and looking over the beautiful Knatt valley to Water Wood on the other side, an area which had already been acquired for the Society by Major Bowker. Individual rooms for the retreatants were to be spacious and private, furnished in such a way as to encourage devotion (L 3)'

More recently the place got some news (When I say news, I mean the awful newspapers like the Daily star, express, The Sun etc) coverage when some 'Ghostbusters' visited to give the building an Exorcism (Lol).


ZE5wl1W.jpg




The Explore

So I visited here with Brewtal from over at DP. It was a pretty chilled, especially as the place is completely open and just off a bridleway with us having to hid from the occasional dog walker.

There are 3 building at Stacklands. Two almost identical long buildings which were used and housing for Men and Women. The middle is what I am guessing was the main house and kitchens.

The place is completely trashed with the middle building very fire damaged. The two long housing buildings were surprisingly structurally intact, although the asbestos roof tiles have fallen down and are scattered about.

I've started experimenting with HDR, although I'm trying to avoid those horrible pukefests of colour that you see all to often, so hopefully its subtle!

Didn't get any time to get any drone shots this time however :(

Anyway, Enjoy!


30584387851_70d32621dc_b.jpg


30372614490_5f14ba1873_b.jpg


30038601373_bce6f98e39_b.jpg


30372653740_1282c3004e_b.jpg


30555594452_b97f3c78c8_b.jpg


30555484742_2be2a65765_b.jpg


30635844536_40e154e0f7_b.jpg


30584440521_cccb40f986_b.jpg


30040885144_71f0a444d9_b.jpg


30038673533_c0cc0fcd27_b.jpg


30040906424_f21056cba6_b.jpg


30672271545_3ac92592dc_b.jpg


30038723573_49d01fe6a9_b.jpg


30635925526_64228405a7_b.jpg


30584514791_d8616718b9_b.jpg


30584530621_7578e5083e_b.jpg


30555637982_f450e3ffa3_b.jpg
 

doingAlevels

28DL Member
28DL Member
I am doing my Alevel in photography and I my final piece is in abandoned buildings. I have been to Stacklands and it was ideal. However I have tried a coup,e of other places one in Leybourne and the other near Canterbury but I cannot get acces as there are gates surrounding the building and I don't really want to get caught trespassing...or should I say obviously trespassing. Can you give me some advice of where I should go?
 

Jscarr

28DL Member
28DL Member
I am doing my Alevel in photography and I my final piece is in abandoned buildings. I have been to Stacklands and it was ideal. However I have tried a coup,e of other places one in Leybourne and the other near Canterbury but I cannot get acces as there are gates surrounding the building and I don't really want to get caught trespassing...or should I say obviously trespassing. Can you give me some advice of where I should go?
The one near Canterbury is chartham Lunatic Asylum but it's been borded up and has security around it
 
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