Eastmoor Secure Unit :: Fotopic.Net

Eastmoor Secure Unit

21st September 2007

Eastmoor secure unit is possibly one of the most disturbing places i have been, whether it was because of the childrens clothes and toys left in the building or just the darkness of the whole place I do not know. The complex is centered around a quadrangle where many workshops, kitchens and the swimming pool branch off from. In the grounds is a chapel which i beleive was latest used as a gym. Some of the buildings have suffered fire damage yet there are still some interesting things to see, including the former dentists with its equipment still intact.
some info here found by BenWRX
Originaly named the Leeds Reformatory For Boys, first certified in 1857 to hold up to 150 boys it would have been one of the places you would hope you didnt end up.. People think asylum history is grim, at least they weren't shipping kids out to the colonies!

Reformatories and Industrial Schools
In 1836, on the Isle of Wight, the first reformatory was established in England. Parkhurst was intended to train boys, who were under the sentence of transportation, for two to three years before their removal from the country. The Philanthropic Society established Redhill Reformatory in 1849 and, soon others followed. However, it was not until 1854 that the British Government finally passed legislation to assist and accredit these institutions.

A child, under 14 years of age, could be sent to an Industrial School for begging, wandering, consorting with thieves or prostitutes or because the parents deemed him/her uncontrollable. If a child was found gulity of a more serious offence or had been before the courts previously he/she was usually sent to a Reformatory School. Sometimes these institutions were used as both Industrial and Reformatory School, for example Feltham. Both institutions gave basic education to the inmates and taught them a trade such as shoemaking, tailoring, wood chopping, carpentry and farming, for the boys and, cookery, laundry and house chores for the girls.

A British government report in 1884 stated that some 2,108 boys and 133 girls had already emigrated to the colonies from institutions in England, Scotland and Ireland. These children came alone or with organizations such as Annie Macpherson's or Maria Rye's. But, in 1891 British legislation made it more difficult to emigrate the children and by the early 1900s it had all but ceased.

In more modern times and with many new extentions and additions it became the East Moor Approved School/Secure Unit.