The History
The main Victorian building began life as St Michael's Orphanage. In the 1920s it later became St Joseph's College, a Roman Catholic Junior Seminary until 1970, before being converted into a ballet school. The Legat School of Ballet, formed by Nicholas Legat and his wife Nadine in London moved to the Marks Cross site in the 1970s and became residential. The ground floor of the main building holding academic lessons, the first floor housed two large dance studios and an art studio while the second floor attic was used for dormitories. The annex to the rear housed staff and senior pupils aged over 16. A third dance studio was housed in a wooden hut beside the rear driveway and several prefabricated buildings to the rear were used for academic lessons and dormitories. The church building was converted into a theatre, and other facilities such as a swimming pool and tennis courts were also provided. Many famous names from the world of ballet were associated with the school, including Eunice Bartell, Pearl Gaden, Anna Lendrum, Hans Meister and Laverne Meyer. The buildings were severely damaged during the storm of 1987 which saw a number of the pre-fabs destroyed, the main building roof lost a number of slates which then damaged other buildings and the roof of the bell tower collapsed. The school at the time was struggling financially with falling admissions despite taking on pupils from the nearby Bush Davis Ballet School which had gone bankrupt the year before, and was unable to afford the repair bill. Insurance alone was insufficient to foot the bill. Closure came in 1990 when Legat merged with Wadhurst College and moved to their site at Best Beech hill approximately 4 miles to the east, only for that site to close a few years later when a further merger with Bellerbys College occurred. The site was eventually sold to Jameah Islameah
Jameah Islameah is an Islamic Institute designed to cater for the needs of Muslim students. The institute has been established since 1993 to cater for students in this country as well as from various parts of Europe. The institute provides an ideal opportunity for students to learn the Qur'an and Sunnah as well as allowing them to develop their own character according to the teachings of the Prophet (SAW).
The primary aim of staff at Jameah Islameah is to ensure that students attain the highest level of spiritual, moral and Islamic awareness. The young generation will learn to familiarise themselves with the message of Islam from both the Qur'an and the Sunnah, helping them to become better Muslims. The key objective is to provide this society with pious scholars and a substantial number of 'Hufaaz' for now and the future.
Jameah Islameah School was an independent Islamic school in East Sussex. The school was located on a 54 acre site and had residential facilities to house male students aged 11 to 16. The school was independently owned and the proprietor functioned as the principal. In December, 2005, Jameah Islameah was inspected by the Office for Standards in Education which noted that it "does not provide a satisfactory education for its pupils.” At the time of the inspection, the school had nine students.
According to BBC News the school purported to teach students to become Islamic leaders, training them to the level high enough to teach in local Masajeds and Madares.
There had been allegations that the school was used in the training and recruitment of terrorists. According to testimony from Al Qaeda suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, in 1997 and 1998, Abu Hamza and groups of around 30 of his followers held terrorist training camps at the school, including training with AK47 rifles and handguns, as well as a mock rocket launcher. In 2003 or 2004, the grounds of the school were used for an Islamic-themed camping trip, at which Omar Bakri Mohammed lectured. The trip, which was advertised by word-of-mouth, was attended by 50 Muslim men, most of whom were members of al-Muhajiroun. Bakri claimed the activities at the camp included lectures on Islam, football, and paintballing.
On 1 September 2006 the Jameah Islameah School was searched by up to a hundred police officers as part of their operations, although no arrests were made. The local Sussex Police held a cordon around the site for 24 days in an operation that cost them over one million pounds Meanwhile the Metropolitan Police searched the buildings and grounds and the lake.
On February 9, 2007, the Department for Education and Skills closed down the school, because it "continues to fail to meet the standards which all independent schools must meet under the Education Act 2002." The school had not been operating at the time, due to lack of students.
If you visit the Jameah Islameah website you will find that they have various plots of land at the school up for rent to “large scale business’s” www.islamicjameah.org.uk/land_for_business.html
The Explore
I visited here with @slayaaaa although we originally went to look at Bellboys only to find workmen there. So Plan B and we headed off this way. We were a little apprehensive after reading other reports and reading the various articles about what goes on there and what went on there. We parked down a side road and approached from the direction of the chapel.
As we came closer to the site we came across a caravan that looked like something out of the film Snatch, but luckily enough no Pikeys and no Dawgs. We carried on through the undergrowth until we found the chapel and made our way inside. The chapel is stunning inside albeit in a bit of a state. Whilst in the chapel we heard voices outside so decided to hide up and be quiet for a bit. Once the voices disappeared we headed down the corridor into the main building. We knew we had to be quick in there as we could hear voices and people moving about so we snapped what we could and legged it back outside, stopping to take some quick pics of boxes of the Qur’an before we got caught.
Sorry of the lack of external pics but I hope you enjoy what I snapped
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The main Victorian building began life as St Michael's Orphanage. In the 1920s it later became St Joseph's College, a Roman Catholic Junior Seminary until 1970, before being converted into a ballet school. The Legat School of Ballet, formed by Nicholas Legat and his wife Nadine in London moved to the Marks Cross site in the 1970s and became residential. The ground floor of the main building holding academic lessons, the first floor housed two large dance studios and an art studio while the second floor attic was used for dormitories. The annex to the rear housed staff and senior pupils aged over 16. A third dance studio was housed in a wooden hut beside the rear driveway and several prefabricated buildings to the rear were used for academic lessons and dormitories. The church building was converted into a theatre, and other facilities such as a swimming pool and tennis courts were also provided. Many famous names from the world of ballet were associated with the school, including Eunice Bartell, Pearl Gaden, Anna Lendrum, Hans Meister and Laverne Meyer. The buildings were severely damaged during the storm of 1987 which saw a number of the pre-fabs destroyed, the main building roof lost a number of slates which then damaged other buildings and the roof of the bell tower collapsed. The school at the time was struggling financially with falling admissions despite taking on pupils from the nearby Bush Davis Ballet School which had gone bankrupt the year before, and was unable to afford the repair bill. Insurance alone was insufficient to foot the bill. Closure came in 1990 when Legat merged with Wadhurst College and moved to their site at Best Beech hill approximately 4 miles to the east, only for that site to close a few years later when a further merger with Bellerbys College occurred. The site was eventually sold to Jameah Islameah
Jameah Islameah is an Islamic Institute designed to cater for the needs of Muslim students. The institute has been established since 1993 to cater for students in this country as well as from various parts of Europe. The institute provides an ideal opportunity for students to learn the Qur'an and Sunnah as well as allowing them to develop their own character according to the teachings of the Prophet (SAW).
The primary aim of staff at Jameah Islameah is to ensure that students attain the highest level of spiritual, moral and Islamic awareness. The young generation will learn to familiarise themselves with the message of Islam from both the Qur'an and the Sunnah, helping them to become better Muslims. The key objective is to provide this society with pious scholars and a substantial number of 'Hufaaz' for now and the future.
Jameah Islameah School was an independent Islamic school in East Sussex. The school was located on a 54 acre site and had residential facilities to house male students aged 11 to 16. The school was independently owned and the proprietor functioned as the principal. In December, 2005, Jameah Islameah was inspected by the Office for Standards in Education which noted that it "does not provide a satisfactory education for its pupils.” At the time of the inspection, the school had nine students.
According to BBC News the school purported to teach students to become Islamic leaders, training them to the level high enough to teach in local Masajeds and Madares.
There had been allegations that the school was used in the training and recruitment of terrorists. According to testimony from Al Qaeda suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, in 1997 and 1998, Abu Hamza and groups of around 30 of his followers held terrorist training camps at the school, including training with AK47 rifles and handguns, as well as a mock rocket launcher. In 2003 or 2004, the grounds of the school were used for an Islamic-themed camping trip, at which Omar Bakri Mohammed lectured. The trip, which was advertised by word-of-mouth, was attended by 50 Muslim men, most of whom were members of al-Muhajiroun. Bakri claimed the activities at the camp included lectures on Islam, football, and paintballing.
On 1 September 2006 the Jameah Islameah School was searched by up to a hundred police officers as part of their operations, although no arrests were made. The local Sussex Police held a cordon around the site for 24 days in an operation that cost them over one million pounds Meanwhile the Metropolitan Police searched the buildings and grounds and the lake.
On February 9, 2007, the Department for Education and Skills closed down the school, because it "continues to fail to meet the standards which all independent schools must meet under the Education Act 2002." The school had not been operating at the time, due to lack of students.
If you visit the Jameah Islameah website you will find that they have various plots of land at the school up for rent to “large scale business’s” www.islamicjameah.org.uk/land_for_business.html
The Explore
I visited here with @slayaaaa although we originally went to look at Bellboys only to find workmen there. So Plan B and we headed off this way. We were a little apprehensive after reading other reports and reading the various articles about what goes on there and what went on there. We parked down a side road and approached from the direction of the chapel.
As we came closer to the site we came across a caravan that looked like something out of the film Snatch, but luckily enough no Pikeys and no Dawgs. We carried on through the undergrowth until we found the chapel and made our way inside. The chapel is stunning inside albeit in a bit of a state. Whilst in the chapel we heard voices outside so decided to hide up and be quiet for a bit. Once the voices disappeared we headed down the corridor into the main building. We knew we had to be quick in there as we could hear voices and people moving about so we snapped what we could and legged it back outside, stopping to take some quick pics of boxes of the Qur’an before we got caught.
Sorry of the lack of external pics but I hope you enjoy what I snapped
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