Urban Exploring! Lost History

I love the lost history that is forgotten, only waiting to be rediscovered once again!
Walking in this forgotten history makes you feel a connection to your own present and where you came from. The memories of these places reach out and speak to you on a personal level, this is the obsession of urban exploration!

I explored the Farther Hudson children Homes, opened in Coleshill, Birmingham(UK) during 1905 by a catholic priest called Farther Hudson.
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Farther Hudson became a priest in 1898 and noticed the injustice that homeless children had to endure on the streets of Birmingham. St Paul’s home for children was the main one in Birmingham at the time, but was very overcrowded and led to children being missed out, without a place to go. Farther Hudson’s children home was the solution and building of the home began in 1905 at a cost over 8000 pounds, nuns began to work there to help out the children and Farther Hudson’s vision became a reality.
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In 1908 tuberculosis cases in the children became high and worried the local people, as a result a temporary hospital was set up called saint Johns. In 1913 a permanent hospital called St Gerard’s was built that could hold 37 children and would also help children from every child’s home in Birmingham, including the local families in the area!

During WW1, St Gerard’s hospital helped accommodate the soldiers coming back from the front, the kids were put in the St Paul’s open air hospital….. “screw you children, eat frost”…

St Gerard’s opened a tuberculosis sanatorium after the war, a Sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis in the late-nineteenth and twentieth century before the discovery of antibiotics, how far we have come!

The facilities were also expanded, with the addition of an operating theatre , an xray facility, and more open air hospital facilities , “brrrrr…” (we love those brisk English winters).

In 1930, after becoming bored of being beaten by raging catholic nuns, a nurses home called saint Mary’s was opened! The children finally had some kind mother figures to look up to!

Farther Hudson died in 1936 and his memory is preserved not far from the home he helped to pioneer!

You can see how large this place had become looking at this aerial photo from 1940 ! “it was like a fortress when we went around it!”
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In WW2 the home received some damage from bombing , but no one was hurt and escaped unscathed.

In 1957 to 1965 a priest called Farther Eric Taylor abused boys as young as six and then stood by as they were beaten by nuns for complaining. In 1998 his victims came forward to slam this piece of shit into a jail cell to rot!

Two of his victims committed suicide because of his evil actions.
He was found guilty of 16 charges of indecent assault and two charges of child abuse.

I have gathered a transcript of what the judge said to this waste of a human, to ease the anger in you that I felt:

During sentencing at Warwick Crown Court, Judge Marten Coates told 78- year-old Taylor: "For nearly seven years you were in a position of trust and authority at the home at Coleshill.
"These homes had been set up to rescue the most vulnerable people in our society.
"You told the jury the regime was harsh and boys were beaten in an unlawful manner. Not only did you do nothing about this, but you knew the fear of receiving such punishment meant that the boys were unlikely to complain.
"Those few who did knew their complaints would not be believed and secure in that knowledge you indulged yourself.
"The lifelong damage you inflicted has been seen during the course of this trial. The trust placed in you, you abused on a daily basis."

Judge Coates told Taylor: "The boys came from all walks of life. You are a disgrace to your cloth and the church you proclaim. Your victims were not only young, but they were helpless, you were the nearest thing they had to a father figure."

The Roman Catholic Church last night apologized to the priests' victims. A joint statement issued by the Father Hudson Society and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham, read: "We deeply regret the effect of Father Taylor's actions and will offer counselling and ongoing support as appropriate to those concerned."

The Farther Hudson society paid out over half a million pounds in court settlements. Father Pedo was officially stripped of his priesthood in 2001 and died the same year, rotting in jail , perfect!
The charity issued an official apology to all the victims of Father pedo.

Urban exploration mostly involves exploring places you don’t have personal history with, it is shrouded in mystery and the memories are there to be discovered.

However, my nan was pregnant with my mom in 1967 and was having a difficult pregnancy that required her to stay in bed with a cage around her for months. My grandad needed to work to provide for his family, so my nans 7 other children had to go to the home temporarily, 7 kids you say…they were Irish XD!

My grandad was 6’4 and built like a brick shit house, so any of farther pedos ilk that were left in the home would have been to scared to do anything to them. They were very fortunate that they were in the school 2 years after that disgrace left. However, the catholic nuns were still doing what they do best, good old fashion child traumatization.

My uncle was 8 and missed his parents and his siblings, as he was separated from them in the home. He would wet the bed often due to his fear, the nuns would wake him up at 1 am with torches and carry him to a tin bath full of cold water and throw him in, for wetting the bed…very godly…these types of people are what gives us Catholics a bad name. They promote evil, instead of spreading love and god’s teachings.

My uncle and his friend ran away from the home and got as far as Coleshill town center, the town the child’s home was in. They were picked up by the local police and taken back, only to be given a thrashing by the nuns for running away sighs.

However, my auntie who was the oldest sibling there witnessed a brilliant event. The nuns would give the children kippers in milk, the fish smelt off and the milk was of a questionable quality.
I hate kippers, and apparently so did a 7-year-old girl at the time, she refused to eat this peasant like fish. The Nuns were infuriated and started to yell intimidatingly at the little girl, who began to cry.
A 17 year old boy was in the dining hall with the other children and something inside him snapped, he was sick of the nuns and their abuse! He got his tray of rancid kippers and launched it at the bitch nun who was attempting to hit the little girl. The nun got smacked square in the face, with what was now a holy fish, and she fell to the ground. The nun was shortly submitted to humiliation ,as the hall burst out with the laughter of children.

The nuns were livid and more attempted to hit the little girl, the boy rushed in front of her and pushed several nuns to the ground and they all scurried away, like the cowards they were.

The 17 year old proved to the children that they weren’t powerless and they had a right to stand up for themselves!

In the 70’s – 80’s adoption, fostering, and family support grew in popularity and eventually made such homes obsolete. The last building, st Gerard’s hospital, closed in 1998.

Farther Hudsons childs home was eventually voted to be partially demolished in 2013 by the locals. The place had a bad history and many locals had bad memories of the place, thanks to Farther pedo and the nuns.

I walked around the place 3 times, however on my 4th trip i was overcome with a deep feeling of sadness and dread, i never left a place so fast. The negative energy attached to that place made itself apparent to my senses!

It is a shame that this history will be partially lost, due to the shit actions of a few. The evil people that led to it being demolished got their rightful share of karma though, a disgraced priest, who rotted in prison until his death and the evil nuns who were made a laughing stock by the children and became the opener for many future jokes!

Farther Hudsons home for children has a silver lining though, that is relevant in our modern times. It reminds us that one person can make a positive impact on the lives of many, like Farther Hudson did in those early years of the home. He gave, cold, hungry, and frightened children shelter from the elements and people that would seek to exploit them.

In farther Hudson lifetime no children were abused or made to feel unsafe. Farther Hudson’s actions represents an ideology that is fast dying in our society, the drive to provide facilities to end the suffering of people and help to support them.

Modern hospitals, support groups, and organizations only care about one thing “value for the shareholders” or making “budget savings” so these services can’t work as well or in some cases at all.

My dad is a social worker and the department’s budget is constantly being slashed, the framework that is in place to protect children is fast being unraveled by the greed of a few.

Farther Hudsons vision can inspire us to make these services about helping people again!

We need to inspire philanthropists and even as people without resources, our actions to help others can promote positive change in our world!

The pictures!

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18 year old me (now 26..weeps)

Leaving the slums to go to a nice country town

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It begins!

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The front of St Marys - Nurses ;D

side of St Marys

on the road again...to the haunted child's home

The famous steeple of Farther Hudsons child home , you can see it in the first black and white picture!

There was an eerie ,abandoned old peoples home across from the main building...

The curtain we saw moving...could of been the wind nervously laughs

we had to sneak around into the old childs home... there was a new old peoples home adjacent to this, with bored old people with itchy telephone fingers.