Waylands

Waylands was a last minute stop at the end of a good days exploring. Access was in plain view of a main road and a row of shops (more about that later). We deliberated for a few minutes as to the best course over the fence and then, one by one we entered.

The place had been thoroughly trashed, windows smashed and rooms ransacked.

We all broke off into different rooms and started having a good poke round. I spent a majority of my time just gawping at the destruction rather than taking pictures and the ones I did take were appalling (hence what's on the right of this page).

The building itself was totally mad, bizarrely angled walls and roofs, spiral staircases and 1st floor classrooms 'hidden' behind wooden panelling on a balcony that overlooked the main hall. In one 'classroom' I found a photo album of a day trip, what I saw made me feel even sadder, this had not been a 'mainstream' education center. Under the stage I found a storage room, everything had been pulled from the shelves and the floor was littered with all manner of debris. One shelf remained untouched and on it were boxes and boxes of 35mm slides showing productions put on by the center in the past. I met up with the rest of the group in the playground and as we prepared to leave the sound of sirens could be heard.............