See photographs of Outside Kingshill House
After a few years being renovated, in October 2016 Kingshill House had an open day. We took this opportunity to look around partly because we were interested (nosey!) and partly because Duncan was born here when it was a maternity unit. We were very impressed by what had been done. The owners wanted the House to be a community hub and all sorts of activities were to be organised for the community; it was also a place of sanctuary for people who are going through a crisis and needed some support.
Not all rooms were finished, but the majority of those we saw were; the House had a very nice feel about it - the decor comfortable and the volunteers running it were welcoming and overall there was a calm and peaceful atmosphere about the building. A far cry from when Mandy worked there in a 'goldfish' bowl made of bullet-proof material with a panic button 'just in case'. We left very impressed. How sad it was to learn that just a few years later the building has been sold.
For over forty years the building was a maternity unit and there were plenty of visitors on the open day who had been born there. There was an opportunity to see some of the historic records of the building and it was very thoughtful that the owners had produced a keepsake, given to those who had been born there.
We were told we could take photographs (to go on this website) but there were so many people visiting it was difficult to do so and many rooms were left unrecorded. One area we particularly wanted to see was the top room of the tower but for some reason we didn't take a photograph of the room, just the fireplace and a couple of windows. How disappointing! We're sure that anyone who looks at this building must wonder what that little room at the top must be like and we're sorry to disappoint. We were very confused by the photographs we did take of the windows - there are four windows on the tower - one on each side, although we think the one at the back is not visible from inside the tower room. Perhaps the number of winding stairs put our sense of direction askew, but we cannot work out which walls our windows are on. We know we omitted to take a photograph of the window at the front – this one has a double arch whereas the others are singles. We have two photographs of one window (one of which has a reflection of another on an opposite wall) and one more window but we don’t know where it is. Confusing as well as disappointing! We can only think we were so in awe of finally getting into this tower room that our senses left us.
