Swaylands Estate

Our walk today took us round the edge of the Swaylands Estate which is a large listed private house with terraced gardens  developed through the second half of the C19. In the first half of the C20 it used as a boarding school for boys with learning difficulties and closed down in 1993 because of allegations of sex abuse. One member of staff was convicted in 1994 and 20 years later, earlier this year 3 more members of staff  were finally convicted of sexual abuse of the boys over a 30 year period. 

Estate was sold to developers and now boasts extremely expensive houses.   This old bridge over a lane going through the estate links some of the old buildings on the estate;  now called garden cottage and dairy cottage and probaby homes to the former estate workers.

It is now a scene of beauty and tranquility but I bet there are ghosts . Not sure I would want to live there. 

Statistics- the walk was 19.57 km= 12 miles 26,900 paces.