Eastry and Summerlands Lodge Westgate

Hi

Just a bit of info on these locations.

Summerlands Lodge in Westgate has been bought, made secure and work has begun on it.

If you are going to eastry hospital, take care. Last time I went there for a shoot about a month ago, a mob of idiots turned up as we were about to leave and started smashing things up, I had words but they didnt seem bothered even when I said I would call the police.
A week later a photographer I know was doing a shoot there, seems the same gang turned up, started doing more damage and threatened him.
Now today, I have heard it has happened to another photographer.

These idiots need serious culling!!

who do these morons think they are? the owners need to get security in quick before anymore damage is done,we as urban explorers/ photographers are only there to document the place, idiots like this make me really angry, and end up giving us a bad name.

Part of the problem would seem to be that it is not just the chavs and pykys.

We went out to do an explore yesterday and almost literally bumped into a really dopey secca after being on site the best part of an hour looking for a way in. Anyhow he called his boss who promptly called the dibble. Being as we had nothing to hide we agreed to wait until the dibble arrived to talk to them where as we could have quite easily just walked off. But anyhow, long story short... the first thing secca said was, "Are you from 28dayslater"? That confused us a bit and we said no, we were into industrial history and had no idea what he meant. I later asked him why he mentioned it and he said there have been pictures taken and posted on that forum of explorers actively tagging within the site. Now add to that a tag I saw on an explore a while back which said, "28 days looter" and a story or two I have heard about some off there actively taking stuff, and I begin to wonder what's what exactly.

To be perfectly rational and objective about it I have no personal experience worth mentioning of the site what so ever as we rarely if ever bother with the site, but this is three or four seperate "pointers" I've picked up on in just twelve months and I tend to subscribe to the saying, there's no smoke without fire. But conversly, in direct contradiction to the bad vibe, I must point out that I had also heard they recently banned some members after finding out they were up to no good, so clearly if that is the case, policing of the site is active and it may well be that it's a disconnected series of rumours, reinforced for us by this secca's immediate response and question, and I am doing the site a disservice as a result. I just don't know.

At a personal level Tonto and I actively display the banner from the Urbexers Against Vandalism site on our own web page and if they had appropriate T shirts we would wear them, it being something we feel strongly about. Not that that is going to make much difference if secca nab you of course.

In conclusion I think we are all getting tarred with a nasty, smelly brush due to the actions of a monority in the urbex community, and we need to be as pro-active as possible if we see anything bad going down "on site".

I've heard exactly this, but being from Eastry myself, I'm sure I know these idiots, so when I go in there, shouldn't be any trouble....I'll see if I can chat to them and tell them to do one