Upon entering the Newsham Park orphanage, you can feel the foreboding atmosphere, the sadness that clings to every brick and the uncomfortable feeling that your every move… is being watched.

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Built-in 1874, this grade 2 listed Victorian building is considered to be one of the most haunted buildings in the UK. Now sitting derelict and with a 99,000 square foot interior, Newsham park was originally built as an orphanage for seamen’s children after they got lost at sea. By 1899 there were 321 children living under the supervision of several uncaring matrons. Conditions were harsh and punishments cruel, siblings were separated on admission, and although the children were given an education that matched the educational system of the time, it was a place of fear, sorrow, and much emotion.

 

World war 2 brought more orphans and evacuees. By 1918 there were just under 1,000 children housed here. One former resident said, “They weren’t fussed how they punished you”, and described life at Newsham as “very Oliver twist”… soup every day, and Wednesday was known as ‘slink’ day, where all the leftovers from the previous week were thrown into one pot, cooked up and served. Matrons would walk around, and any children that had not cleared their plate in the given time had the uneaten food re-presented to them at tea time.

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The orphanage closed in 1949 and reopened as Newsham Park Hospital in 1954. It stayed as a hospital until 1992, where it then became an asylum, housing some of the UK’s most criminally insane for the next five years. It currently sits empty, and with its reputation as a hotspot, it is now used for paranormal events.

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Newsham has thrown out some startling evidence of paranormal activity, with security staff reporting things on a regular basis as they patrol this vast location. Apparitions have been seen many times, with security mistaking them for intruders. Voices are heard regularly echoing through empty corridors. Shadow figures have been seen fleeing up staircases as though wanting to avoid being seen. Workmen have reported missing tools on many occasions, only to find them again in a different part of the building. Many people have reported hearing a growling in their ear, hair being pulled and being pushed. Screams have been heard, and the sound of dragging. Could the sound of slamming doors be the work of the children that still call Newsham Park home?

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There are many spirits walking the now empty corridors. There are the mischievous children, an orphanage matron, and a young man named Michael who passed with a lung condition in the 1920s. A lady has been seen in a white uniform; it is thought she is the nurse that was found dead on the staircase on which she stands. It was reported that she spoke very often of seeing spirits in the hospital. Has she joined them in the hope that someone will find out what happened to her on that fateful day? Could you be that person?

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Spend the night investigating the wards, accommodation blocks and Victorian nurse’s home, the schoolhouse, the dark empty corridors, and the infamous naughty boy’s corridor.

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With torment and anguish hanging thick in the air. Are you brave enough to be locked inside a location that is boarded up and sitting behind a perimeter fence? Where once inside, no one will hear you scream?