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Another break-in at Barlaston

The new board of trustees, appointed at the AGM in Oxford, headed to Esperanto House for their first weekend on the job. What greeted them was a nasty surprise:

image.jpegIt's no secret that the two sites of the former Wedgwood Memorial College have been a magnet for vandals and thieves since the College closed down in 2012. Esperanto House had largely escaped their attention, until it suffered two break-ins in 2022.

The vandals did enter Esperanto House but don't appear to have stolen anything. There's little of value in place there; artwork was removed after the first break-in, most of the library collection is with a firm of scanners as part of a digitisation project, and nearly all of the archive is held at an external storage facility.

They unsuccessfully attempted to gain access to the ground floor:

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And left their hammer behind.

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This is now with the police forensics team.

They made a point of smashing up other nearby windows and a garage door:

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The incident is now in the hands of the local police force.

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Tim

Posted

1 hour ago, Lee Brady said:

Such a shame.

Yep. Just pointless vandalism, with other people left to foot the bill and clean everything up afterwards.

Shannon Ratcliffe

Posted

What is wrong with people?! Sigh. Until people grow some integrity,  esperanto's language of hope purpose of uniting folk will never manifest itself. Is there anything that the community can do? A volunteer work day at Esperanto House? I'm game, I even have my own cleaning/painting supplies as needed. Let's not let the buggers get us down - pick a day, Tim, preferably after July 1st, and I am there!! Whatever needs doing.

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Tim

Posted

Thank you, @Shannon Ratcliffe, but I've already been to the site to tidy up. Fingers crossed I won't need to do so again!

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Shannon Ratcliffe

Posted

Well, the idea is still there. Even if there are general cleaning, freshening, or maintenance tasks to do... churches do it, work days, maybe we all could too. It shouldn't fall to just one person, you do enough, Tim. ❤️

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Jack Warren

Posted

I would be up for this, I will be free most weekends in July and August, except 13th and 14th July.

RosanelladC

Posted

Kia domaĝo! Ĝi aspektas kiel vandalismo de brutuloj, kiuj ne povis trovi ion valoran.



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