Smyllum Park Orphanage

What I thought would have been an old dark, run down building turns out to be occupied flats with the word PRIVATE written across the front of the entrance.

I decided it would be a good idea to take a drive to Smyllum Park Orphanage today to capture what I thought to be an old run down building hidden in amongst a large wooded area.

In actual fact, what I found was a pretty little street and whilst there is an area filled with trees it is very picturique, I guess the orphanage that once was, had obviously been bought by property development and converted into flats.

The structure of the building is still the same, and I have to add that the architecture of the former orphanage is very beautiful, however, I’m not so sure I would live in one of the flats? (Superstition and all that).

I mean, would you want to live in a flat inside the very building that once housed orphans who were ill treated and who died, especially as children had allegedly been murdered there?

I spoke to one passer-by asking where I could find St Mary’s Graveyard, she informed me that it was about a fifteen minute walk away, so decided I would drive there once finished taking photographs.

It has been alleged that there is a mass grave at the cemetery? However, I will have to return for another visit soon.

I asked the lady about Smyllum Park but she was reluctant to discuss any facts, other than the best area to take the photos as reporters had been there previously.

I’m guessing the fact she didn’t want to say too much, coupled with my Stats on the original post for anyone who was in the orphanage or members of the public to come forward, is an indication that people are either not wanting to remember or they are too afraid to talk.

See Stats on my article below on my original posting on FB & Twitter:-

I am still in talks with one gentleman who was in the orphanage as a youngster, and who wishes to tell his story, due to COVID-19 We have postponed my visit down south until it is save to travel. We are probably looking at the start of 2021 if not before.

I have also been approached to be interviewed for a podcast locally about not only what my future plans are in regard to the ongoing Child Abuse we hear about every day in Institutions (Past & Present), but also the abuse in schools.

(If you, or anyone you know has or are suffering from any form of abuse now or in the past from any of the Institutions mentioned in any of my blogs then please feel free to get in touch, there are many individuals suffering not only now but from historical abuse).

As a survivor of abuse which I had kept secret until now, (Only two people ever knew) And recently discovering that my abuser was sentanced to fourteen years in 2016 for Rape and Abuse of minors, and with the what I do as an advocate and supporter of the survivors of ‘Religiously Run Insititutions’ I felt the time was right to help those who have and are suffering in silence.