Bish

Heatherwood Hospital Ascot

History
The hospital has its origins in a Victorian country residence known as “Heatherfield” built in 1876, possibly for the Farrar family (whose motto ‘Ferre va Ferme’ appears over the front door). It was in the ownership of the Ponsonby family between 1881 and 1891, when the Hon. Ashley Ponsonby, a Justice of the Peace and cousin of Sir Henry Ponsonby, Equerry to Queen Victoria, and his family had their country seat there.

By 1900 the estate was known as Heatherwood and had been acquired by Sir Thomas Lucas, Bt., the son of Thomas Lucas, one of the founders of Lucas Brothers, the builders. The estate was offered for sale at auction by Messers Chancellor and Sons in 1906, but initially failed to find a purchaser. The house and estate was eventually acquired by the United Services Fund (possibly in 1919 when the estate was again offered for sale at auction but more likely in 1920 when it was sold by private treaty by Hamptons).

The United Services Fund converted the building into a hospital for the children of ex-servicemen from the First World War. Patients were admitted from 1922 and the new hospital was officially opened by the Duke of Connaught in May 1923. The new facility specialised in the treatment of children suffering from tuberculosis and orthopaedic diseases. The hospital joined the National Health Service in 1948 and new accident and emergency, out-patient, physiotherapy and hydrotherapy facilities were opened by the Princess Royal in 1961. A new maternity department opened in 1972 and a new mental health and elderly health unit was opened by Princess Anne in 1988.

Following cut-backs, the birth unit closed in September 2011 and the minor injuries unit closed in January 2014.

A new hospital building with six operating theatres, 48 inpatient beds and facilities for 22 day cases, was constructed on a site close to the Ascot Stables and completed in April 2022. The former hospital will be demolished, with a new housing development built on the site.

Bramshill House Police College

The Police Staff College, Bramshill, Bramshill House, Bramshill, (near Hook) Hampshire, England, was until 2015 the principal police staff training establishment in England and Wales.

The need for a training college for the police was pushed heavily by Sir Frank Newsam, who was the second most senior Home Office civil servant in the immediate post-war years. Sir Harold Scott, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in the late 1940s, also called for the establishment for such a college and it was established in June 1948 as the National Police College (taking its present name in 1979). The National Police Library was also established in 1948 and is still in existence, located in Ryton-on-Dunsmore.

From 1948 to 1960 it was located at Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwickshire, but when Newsam became Permanent Secretary of the Home Office he secured for it a permanent base in Bramshill to which it moved in 1960. The main building at Bramshill is a Grade 1 listed Jacobean mansion.

Bramshill was part of Centrex, the Central Police Training and Development Authority, established under Part 4 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001.

On 1 April 2007, Bramshill became part of the National Policing Improvement Agency, which replaced Centrex. The NPIA supported the police service by providing expertise in areas such as serious crime analysis, training, operational support and in the development of new policing technologies and skills.

In November 2012 the professional body for policing was created, called the College of Policing. Meanwhile, the historic main building at Bramshill was proving very expensive to maintain and it was decided to sell the Bramshill site. The College closed the site in March 2015 and the site has had planning applications to be redeveloped as housing development with 350 homes. To date (June 2020) these plans have been refused.

Aldermaston Manor

Aldermaston Court is a country house and private park built in the Victorian era for Daniel Higford Davall Burr with incorporations from a Stuart house. It is south-east of the village nucleus of Aldermaston in the English county of Berkshire. The predecessor manor house became a mansion from the wealth of its land and from assistance to Charles I during the English Civil War under ownership of the Forster baronets of Aldermaston after which the estate has alternated between the names Aldermaston Park and Aldermaston Manor.

The estate became dominated by its neo-Elizabethan mansion after a fire of 1843 destroyed one third of the predecessor and various landscape features were added which have resulted in building and grounds being Grade II* listed. Between the turn of the 21st century and its closure in 2012, the estate has been a wedding venue, a conference centre, and a hotel. Aside from the manor house and its immediate surroundings, the park is home to office buildings and a lake.

Caversham Park

Caversham Park is a Victorian-era stately home with parkland in the suburb of Caversham on the outskirts of Reading, England. Historically located in Oxfordshire, it became part of Berkshire with boundary changes in 1911. Caversham Park was home to BBC Monitoring and BBC Radio Berkshire. The park is listed as Grade II in the English Heritage Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

The present building, inspired by Italian baroque palaces, was erected after a fire in 1850 by architect Horace Jones, who much later also designed London’s Tower Bridge. Its then owner William Crawshay II, an ironmaster nicknamed the ‘Iron King’, had the house rebuilt over an iron frame, an early example for this technique. Jones inserted his seven-bay block between two colonnades of 1840 by John Thistlewood Crew (called J. T. Crews by Pevsner and English Heritage) which apparently survived the fire.

During the First World War, part of the building was used as a convalescent home for wounded soldiers. In 1923, The Oratory School bought the house and about 120 hectares (300 acres) of the estate’s remaining 730 hectares (1,800 acres). The principal of the school was Edward Pereira. The legacy of the estate’s days as a school remains with a chapel building and graves for three boys, one of whom died during World War II in 1940, the other two having died from accident and sickness in the 1920s.

The residential area of Caversham Park Village was developed in the 1960s on some of the parkland.[19] The Local nature reserve Clayfield Copse was part of the land belonging to Caversham Park.[20]

When approaching Reading via the A3290 (formerly part of the A329(M) motorway) northbound near the A4 junction, Caversham Park is a clearly visible landmark dominating the wooded hill on the opposite side of the Thames.

DMRC Headley Court- Epsom

DMRC Headley Court- Epsom

Formerly known as RAF Headley Court, The Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre Headley Court, (DMRC Headley Court) is an 85-acre United Kingdom Ministry of Defence facility in Headley, near Epsom, Surrey, England.

It was used as a rehabilitation centre for injured members of the British Armed Forces between 1985 and 2018.

Headley Court was an Elizabethan farm house bought by the Cunliffe family, from Tyrrell’s Wood, Leatherhead. They later sold this farm house and built in 1899 the imposing mansion at the centre of Headley Court to the north, namely under Lord Cunliffe, who was Chairman of the Bank of England. Its architect was Edward Warren.

During World War II, it was used as the Headquarters for the VII Corps and then for the Canadian Corps. Since the war, it has been used as a Royal Air Force and Joint Services medical rehabilitation centre. During the war, nearby Headley Heath was used as a training ground for engineers building airstrips and trench systems then demolishing them again.

Purchased after that war with money from the Royal Air Force Pilots and Crews Fund, a public collection as a tribute to the deeds, including the Battle of Britain efforts of the RAF, Headley Court lost its social club focus to expand its medical and rehabilitation credentials and become the Defence Services Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DMRC), which aims to return all those service personnel injured or seriously ill to full fitness.

Rehabilitation staff averaged around 200 per year from all three services’ medical and nursing branches, the longest established being Princess Mary’s Royal Air Force Nursing Service. These comprised of specialist medical officers, nurses, remedial instructors, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, a cognitive therapist, social workers, engineers, and administration support staff. Not only did the centre deal with patients with new physical disabilities but it also dealt with patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The rehabilitation areas of the unit consisted of hydrotherapy pools, gymnasiums, and workshops. The high, wooded countryside setting and grounds of the unit welcomed both staff and those recovering.

During the 2002 UK Firefighter strike, two Green Goddess fire engines were based at RAF Headley Court. If called upon, the crews would have had to wait for Surrey Police to escort them to a fire.

In November 2005, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall visited the centre. They met Major David Bradley of the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment who had been given a five per cent chance of survival, after coming under fire from a Rocket Propelled Grenade launcher (RPG) in Basra, southern Iraq in 2004. Other notable patients in 2006/2007 include Sgt Mark Sutcliffe, The Royal Anglian Regiment, Sgt Stuart Pearson, 3 PARA and many others.

Headley Court was in need of further facilities, particularly a full size swimming pool, as patients had to share a leisure centre in Leatherhead. The charity Help for Heroes was set up in late 2007, with a first objective of raising money to build these facilities. A new gym, swimming pool and lower limbs treatment area opened within two years.

The 28 bed Peter Long Ward had single showers and nursing staff on call 24 hours a day, internet access and a kitchen area with washing and drying facilities for clothing. A further large ward opened in September 2010 of 30 beds, rest areas and equipment.

In July 2014, the Minister of Defence, Philip Hammond, announced that the services provided by Headley Court would be transferred to a new centre to be developed at Stanford Hall. The opening of the new Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre by the Duke of Cambridge took place in June 2018. The centre at Headley Court ceased operations in September 2018. The future of the buildings at Headley Court is in the hands of the Headley Court Trust. 

MediCinema to help rehabilitation at Headley Court

The Royal British Legion, the nation’s leading Armed Forces charity, is partnering with MediCinema to open the facility, with plans to adapt part of the Grade 2 listed building for the purpose.

The proposals were given the green light this week and will create the first ever fully digital, 3D system dedicated to Service personnel undergoing rehabilitation.

The new cinema complex will show Hollywood blockbusters and films on current release up to three times a week. It is hoped that it will be up and running in time to screen the London 2012 Olympic Games this summer.

The 50-seat cinema will have full wheelchair access, with some seats accessible by steps to help those redeveloping their mobility. It will make a significant contribution to the recuperation of Service personnel by providing them with some much needed entertainment during their rehabilitation.

The Royal British Legion has provided £420,000 towards the capital and operating costs of the cinema which MediCinema will build and manage.

Fawley Power Station Star Wars Set

Fawley Power Station Star Wars Set

Steampunk Commander Control Room

Steampunk Commander Control Room

Steampunk Commander Control Room

Château Haine - France

Château Haine – France

Le Château des Passions et de la Haine ( The Castle of Passions and Hatred )

 

Slaughterhouse De Lokery - Belgium

Slaughterhouse De Lokery – Belgium

 

 

 

Slaughterhouse De Lokery – Belgium

  The abattoir opened in 1960 and closed in early 2017. They opened up a new abattoir which can slaughter over 2 million pigs a year. This site will now be demolished for 100 houses, which is a relief to local residents who wanted the abattoir closed.

Oceade Brussels

Oceade – Brussels

 

 

Oceade – Brussels

 

Océade was an indoor waterpark in Brussels, Belgium and the largest of its kind in the Brussels Capital Region. Originally part of a 3 park franchise, the other 2 parks located in France, it was the only park to remain in business after the French divisions closed. Running at a loss, the park was acquired by the Walibi Group in 1992, with management experience built up through Aqualibi near Wavre just south of Brussels.

The park has continuously expanded and been renovated, and was the Belgian leader for water slides, with 14 slides in the park. Most notably, the Hurricane is record holder for the fastest European slide (average speed 40 km/h), and the Barracuda is the longest duo slide in Belgium. With over 240 000 visitors per year and a combined volume of 1 800 m³ of water, Océade was a major leisure attraction in the Brussels Capital Region.

In 2016, the Brussels city council announced Océade would be forced to close to make space for its NEO project, a redevelopment project envisioning the replacement of most of Bruparck (including Kinepolis and Océade) on the Heysel Plateau with a shopping district and residential area. Under public protest, closure was repeatedly postponed, and the final closing date was 30 September 2018.

 

All the slides and equipment have been bought by a Romanian water park and are currently getting dismantled and re-located.