Latest news with #TheRedHouse
South Wales Argus
25-04-2025
- General
- South Wales Argus
Seven-bedroom Newport home for sale with 'incredible' garden
The property, known as The Red House, is a detached home offering accommodation across four floors on Oakfield Road, Newport. The house is described as 'exceptionally spacious' and 'beautifully improved and maintained', with five double bedrooms, three bathrooms, and two reception rooms. A notable feature is the large, versatile studio with its own separate entrance and kitchenette, which the agent says could suit a range of uses. There is also a basement area with two 'good size' rooms, accessed from the hallway. Ground floor accommodation includes an entrance porch with original tiled floor, a butler's pantry, cloakroom, sitting room, and a double living room with period features. The kitchen-diner has been 'stylishly refurbished' with fitted units and Bosch appliances, and has French doors opening to the garden. Upstairs, the first and second floors offer five double bedrooms, a family bathroom, two shower rooms, and a laundry room. The master bedroom, living room, and kitchen have air conditioning and electric blinds, according to the listing. Outside, the house has a sweeping driveway and what the agent calls an 'incredible' rear garden, with lawn, flower and shrub borders, and two paved seating areas. The property is freehold and offered with no chain. To enquire about the property, contact Crook and Blight Estate Agents on 01633 371577.
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Why Grove Park may have been inspiration for E. Nesbit and The Railway Children
Grove Park and its railway station may just be the inspiration behind The Railway Children. E. Nesbit, or Edith Nesbit, is famously known for her published works like The Railway Children, Five Children and It, and The Phoenix and the Carpet. Over the course of her life, the esteemed author lived in a number of areas around south east London including Eltham, Blackheath and Grove Park. At one time Nesbit lived in Well Hall, with her home backing onto what is now Well Hall Pleasaunce, and there are even records of the author punting in the moat around The Tudor Barn when she used to live there. At one time Nesbit lived in Well Hall, with her home backing onto what is now Well Hall Pleasaunce. (Image: Emily Davison) She was also friends with fellow south east London writers H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw, who she would frequently entertain as guests. Whilst the village of Strines in Stockport also lays claim to being the inspiration for The Railway Children, Grove Park's strong claim is one that is highly regarded. Whilst the village of Strines in Stockport also lays claim to being the inspiration for The Railway Children, Grove Park's strong claim is one that is highly regarded. (Image: Loco Steve/Flickr) Nesbit lived in Baring Road between the years of 1894 and 1899, in a home called Three Gables next to The Ringway Centre – a rather similar sounding name to the fictionalised Three Chimneys house where the children move to. The building is no longer standing, however a short way from the former house you'll find Railway Children Walk, which leads to the nature reserve and Railway Children Point, a spot that would have given the author views of the railway line and surrounding countryside. This connection was marked with a map and trail financed by The Heritage Lottery Fund, which highlights sites of interest in Grove Park since the town's birth in the 1870s. A short way from E. Nesbit's former house you'll find Railway Children Walk, which leads to the nature reserve and Railway Children Point. (Image: Google) Edith was later to move to an 18th century house in Well Hall in 1899 with her husband Hubert, where she remained for 22 years. This home is also believed to be the inspiration behind another of her books – The Red House, published in 1902. A plaque was later erected in Well Hall Pleasaunce in 2004, commemorating the author for her work, and reads: 'Edith Nesbit, with her magic touch of writing children's stories which still live on today in television and film adaptations, is the name now most associated with Well Hall House."
Sky News
12-03-2025
- Sky News
The Danish group behind a children's home run like a cult
👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈 The Red House was a children's home in Norfolk that took in hundreds of students in care from across the UK between 1984 and 1998. It was run by a controversial Danish group called Tvind, operating an unconventional education system - most students from The Red House left without any qualifications. Now, more than 40 former pupils have come forward with allegations of physical and sexual abuse they say they faced at the home. On the Sky News Daily, Niall Paterson speaks to correspondent Alice Porter about what has been uncovered after she travelled to Denmark to track down the organisation behind The Red House and investigate claims it is a cult. And we hear from victims about the alleged abuse faced by students.
Sky News
12-03-2025
- Sky News
Warning: This article contains material some readers may find distressing.
"The teachers would shake, slap and beat you into submission." "I remember being woken being raped." "It was a cult. It wasn't a school in the slightest." Kyle*, a security worker in his mid-forties, is talking about The Red House, a now defunct children's home in remote Norfolk. Based in a red brick building, set deep in the countryside, it was almost entirely cut off. Former students report a toxic culture of public shaming and sexual abuse, with staff acting as violent ringleaders. At the heart of these abuse allegations is a Danish co-operative which ran more than 25 similar establishments and became embroiled in a financial scandal. "They gave me the beating of my life," Kyle says, recalling a brutal attack by fellow students, ordered by a teacher. "He came in with two or three students and said: 'Go and get him.' I had broken ribs, a cracked jaw and black eyes." As he left the room, the teacher turned to Kyle and said: "You deserve that." Born into a family with addiction problems, Kyle arrived at The Red House aged 14. A brochure shown to him by his social worker promised the opportunity for children who had suffered "abuse and neglect" to "start afresh" with sailing and horse riding, as well as "building friendships with teachers". But soon after arriving, he claims the reality of his new home became clear. "Teachers would put a chair in the middle of the marble hall and sit you there in front of everybody." Kyle, former Red House student "They'd allow students to hit you in the face. The teachers would shake, slap and beat you into submission." 'SLAVE LABOUR' As well as being a home, The Red House was supposed to offer children an education focused on manual work. Kyle's childhood dream of being an architect was quickly shattered. He recalls children being used as "slave labour" to maintain the school's facilities, building shower blocks, bricklaying and painting. Kyle left the home unable to read and write. Hundreds of children in care from across the UK were sent to The Red House between 1984 and 1998. Kyle is one of 43 former students who are now in the process of taking legal action for the physical, sexual and psychological abuse they allegedly experienced there. He says he is in touch with over 60 more victims from The Red House who are not ready to come forward. The home was run by the Tvind School Cooperative of Denmark, a controversial group founded in the late 1960s by a left-wing teacher called Mogens Amdi Petersen. A hippy guru with long hair and woolly jumpers, he attracted followers with his vision of how they could change the world. Tvind opened around 30 radical schools in Denmark, most for disadvantaged children, and two in England: The Red House in Norfolk and The Small School in East Yorkshire. Local authorities could pay Tvind up to £4,000 per month for the education, care and welfare of each child. Teachers were also expected to donate their salary to the organisation and live communally. "They objected to learning from books," says Jes Fabricus Moeller, an associate professor from Copenhagen University, who has written a book about the organisation. "A famous phrase of theirs was: 'You can't see the world if you look into a book' - that was part anti-intellectual, but it was also the idea that learning by doing is much better." Jes Fabricus Moeller Tvind Schools have mostly closed in Denmark and many former students have spoken positively of the unconventional education they received. The schools are not widely associated with child abuse, it is claimed The Red House was the exception. 'I WOKE UP BEING RAPED' Hayley was 13 when she was sent to The Red House. Now 44, her no-nonsense attitude makes her appear tough. Dressed all in black, her nails are bright pink and her hands are covered in small, black tattoos. She describes the way staff used to violently restrain pupils, with multiple people pinning her on the floor. "I thought I was going to die because I couldn't breathe," she says tearfully. The Tvind ethos was based around helping developing countries, sometimes by fundraising or manual labour. Students at The Red House would spend months abroad, often travelling in old buses. Hayley was on one such trip in India when she claims to have been sexually assaulted. "I remember being woken to being raped. I tried to find a teacher but they just told me to go back to bed and said I was lying." Hayley claims to have been raped multiple times while at The Red House. Steven, 50, from Newcastle, also claims to have experienced physical and sexual abuse while at the home. Orphaned at a young age, he was placed in multiple children's homes before arriving at The Red House aged 12. He says he was molested and is now unable to work due to complex post-traumatic stress disorder, which stems from his time at the home. "I will never get the screams of children being raped out of my head." Steven also claims he endured regular beatings from the headmaster. If children wet the bed, he says, they were forced to wear a nappy and run around with a toilet seat above their head, in full view of everyone. A RIOT AT THE SCHOOL In 1989, children tried to alert the authorities about what was happening at the school by staging a riot. Windows were smashed and buildings damaged. Steven thought help had arrived when police officers appeared, but instead they arrested him and 17 other pupils, charging them with violent disorder and criminal damage. Inspections by regulatory bodies revealed growing concern from authorities about The Red House. In 1990, the Social Services Inspectorate wrote to directors of local authorities warning them against sending children to the home. It listed allegations including sexual assault by a teacher from Denmark, physical abuse by teachers and a gang rape by three pupils. A report made by Norfolk County Council in 1994 shows they were aware of reports of 20 victims of child abuse. Despite allegations of abuse being clearly documented, the home continued to operate. Two years later, the Charity Commission began an inquiry into the home over concerns that funds from the home, which were meant for the charity, were instead being siphoned off to private businesses and Tvind's leaders. Sky News has obtained a copy of the Social Services Inspectorate letter highlighting concerns raised at The Red House in 1990. FINANCIAL SCANDAL As well as deriving income from their schools, Tvind ran the aid organisation Humana People to People, with projects in 26 countries. Money was often raised by the collection of used clothes, which were recycled and sold in developing countries, but controversy later grew over Tvind's finances. In the 1990s, Danish authorities and the FBI claimed funds meant for the organisation's charitable arm were being used as part of a money-laundering network, with money going into the accounts of Tvind's inner circle - The Teachers' Group - made up of around 600 loyal members. In 2003, Petersen and seven others from the group were put on trial in Denmark in a £15m fraud and embezzlement case. He was acquitted, but by the time the prosecution appealed against that decision, Petersen had fled to Mexico, where it is understood he remains. In 1998, The Red House and Winestead Hall were closed down by the Charity Commission. Steen Thomsen, a former headteacher at Winestead Hall, is one of the few former members of the inner circle who has publicly criticised Tvind. He joined aged 24, excited by the prospect of being part of a "socialist" group. "We wanted equality, a better world and to think about how we can be a force for change." Now 76, Steen seems conflicted by what Tvind could have been and the reality of what it became. Dressed in black with a white beard, he greets me at his home in north Denmark, where the smell of coffee and fresh pastries waft from the kitchen. There are photos of his grandchildren on the walls, but none of Steen from his childhood. He says Petersen ordered members to destroy photos of their lives before they joined. All romantic relationships also had to be approved by the leader. "If I had a relationship with one of the women within the teachers' group, it would be controlled. If you wanted to marry or have children, that would be difficult." In 1998, Steen became aware that Tvind was funnelling money out of the charity-run schools in England. He left and went straight to the bank to make sure his final month's salary would stay in his account. "It was a mixture of being free and feeling guilty because I was leaving my old friends. I knew that in a way I was betraying them." He says he became an "outcast" and wrote to the Danish Ministry of Education denouncing Tvind as a cult - which he still believes to be true. WHAT BECAME OF TVIND? With Tvind's leader thought to be in Mexico, it's unclear what has become of this mysterious group. The Tvind International School Centre operates mainly as a teacher training college in west Denmark, on the site where the group first began. Their website describes Tvind as an "educational and cultural collaboration of a number of independent Danish institutions", and says they are no longer associated with the former Tvind co-operation which operated The Red House. The campus is isolated, surrounded by high pine trees, away from prying eyes. Looming above it is an enormous wind turbine. Built in 1978 by students, it has become the longest-running wind turbine in the world. Walking around the site, it feels stuck in time, but it is here that our investigation, which began in Norfolk, takes us to a former Red House headteacher who continues to work at the centre. But the man, who can't be named for legal reasons, declined to speak to us. He has denied physically abusing any children in his care or knowing about any abuse by his staff. Back in the UK, Norfolk Police have carried out two "extensive" investigations, between 1984 and 1998, into allegations of abuse at The Red House. Officers travelled to Denmark in 2017 to conduct interviews, including with the former headteacher, but no one has been charged. In a statement, Norfolk Police said that due to "evidential difficulties" and "statutory time limits", they had concluded "there was no realistic prospect of achieving a conviction against any suspect". "We have personally contacted all victims and visited those who agreed to meet with us to explain the outcome of this latest investigation," the force added. The 43 victims of alleged abuse at The Red House are in the process of suing Norfolk County Council and the local authorities that sent them to the home. "There was opportunity after opportunity for the authorities to stop the abuse," said Daniel Lemberger Cooper of Imran Khan and Partners, the law firm representing the victims. "But it was - shockingly - allowed to carry on. Why that was, and who was responsible is precisely why my clients are bringing this legal action." The victims are being supported by the Shirley Oaks Survivors Association, which campaigns over historical abuse in children's homes in south London. Its co-founder, Dr Raymond Stevenson, said the victims want answers. "The organisation that ran The Red House was an international company. So who's responsible? The local council that sent them there or the government? I suggest all of them". Dr Raymond Stevenson, co-founder of Shirley Oaks Association Norfolk County Council has described the allegations as "deeply concerning", adding they have "cooperated fully with investigations, which relate to children that were placed there by other local authorities". For Kyle, his focus now is trying to make sure those who allowed vulnerable children in their care to be abused are held to account. "There are still people from this organisation that are here in the UK, and spread around Europe, that need to be brought to justice." Scandals involving historical abuse in children's homes in the UK are sadly not new. But The Red House is unique for how an international group, regarded by many as a cult, was able to take control of two children's homes in England, allegedly abusing and profiteering from vulnerable children in care. All the while projecting an image of generous philanthropy to the rest of the world. *Names have been changed CREDITS Reporting by Alice Porter, news correspondent and Sophie Falcon, producer Editing by Serena Kutchinsky, assistant editor Shorthand by Megan Harwood-Baynes, social affairs and health reporter Design by Eloise Atter and Yetunde Adeleye, designers Images: Contributor handouts Top Built with Shorthand
