St Hill

[Amadeus Einstein]

This brought back so many memories, all the good times as well as the bad.

[Dulloldfart]

Thanks very much for this, Ax.

The Academy being in what is now reception is an interesting story. At the time the SH Directors of Training (not a typo, and there wasn't a SH D of T and a Deputy, there were two people of equal stature on one post), one of whom was Frank O'Sullivan, were running the Academy in one of the currently-marked courserooms, and it was a bit cramped. So one night after everyone else had gone home they enlisted the help of the students and just moved into the empty Reception area. They didn't get any approval or anything, they just did it! It would never have been approved, because the area wasn't finished, with bare concrete, no false ceiling hiding the service fixtures, missing doors etc. But they didn't have enough space so just took the initiative and did it. They got away with it, in that they remained on post and the Academy stayed where they moved it, and gradually got finished. In the meantime great sheets of plastic doubled for doors etc. to keep some of the draught out.

Yes, the underground rooms are a drag, like Treasury and CF while I was there. Also the pc folder storage was underground, which in England in winter means DAMP. Not exactly ideal conditions for storing paper in. I went and wrapped plastic around my own pc folders, but they still smelled mouldy. The standard paper for worksheets was not regular bond paper, but foolscap-size newsprint, which is far less robust. It was always interesting when I was in Tech Services there to see folders from the US with beautiful legal size proper writing paper as opposed to the cheapest possible paper we could find, always hard to get as foolscap is not a standard paper size and not easily obtainable. I don't know what they use now. When I tried to get some folders and worksheet paper in the UK recently I looked around for foolscap and just gave up and settled for A4 (similar to letter size). I would love to be able to get legal size paper easily here.

Paul

[Lesolee (Sith Lord)]

Well now, the story I heard about the castle was that they had found the remains of an old castle on the site. They therefore did not need planning permission because every Englishman has a right to rebuild his castle, apparently. That’s why it has stupidly thick walls and so forth. It was basically a dodge to get around the planning regulations.

I remember the castle being readied for an event as it was being constructed. They said it was going to be ready for the next week or so. I looked at it and said “no way”. They had not even levelled the ground, let alone seeded it with grass. There was no way the grass could grow in time. Ah! But I did not factor-in the time pressure. They turfed it. See, I would never have dreamt they had that much money to throw at the problem. (I assume that turf is considerably more expensive than seeding, but I don’t have any figures or experience in the matter.)

You know that whole promo spell-checking thing is probably not down to illiteracy, as such. The thing is that half the staff at AOSH seem to be foreign.

I remember one time I got roped in (I was public) to help proof-read some promo. The SO girl said that it had to be read by someone whose first language was English (and that wasn’t her first language). It was a bit bizarre. We were checking over this promo and every time her boss walked into the room she had to stand to attention. How f*cked up is that? I think this senior deliberately kept walking in and out just to assert her power! It wasn’t good for production.

So this SO girl told me that she had to do this crap (which I don’t think you would even do in the military when it is your own officer in your own office), suggesting implicitly that I should to. I think if pushed the military officer might say “as you were” before you noticed their arrival, or something SANE. Needless to say I didn’t stand up when the “senior” walked in the room. Hey, I wasn’t in the Sea Org, ok.

When I was last down there, around January of 2008, I did a quick “hello tour”. It had been raining within the past few days, which is never a good thing. Although the place superficially looks nice, the drainage is poor and the land is very boggy in places after any rain. I would think the land was originally cheap as it is unsuitable for agriculture. I walked around the lake and I wasn’t impressed with the upkeep of the place. Black stinking water in the water-way leading up to the lake is not a pleasant smell or sight.

On the way back up to the castle I saw a bench rotting and literally having fallen apart so you couldn’t sit on it. (The seating area was normal at one end, but on the ground at the other end.) All pretty downstat in my book.

[Axiom142]

Lesolee,

I had heard the same story about the building of the castle. I’m not sure that it is based in fact though. I think Hubbard just ordered the building of the structure without the necessary planning permission on the basis that it could be ‘handled’ afterwards. This seems to be the natural operating basis of the CoS. JFDI and worry about the consequences afterwards.

To be fair, I don’t think that January is the best time to be walking around outside in the English countryside and expect to see it at its best. The grounds are very pleasant in the spring and summer, when all the flowers are out and the ground is dry and able to be walked on without getting muddy.

But you are right, the maintenance appears to have been neglected over the past couple of years. I guess this is indicative of the general decline of the CoS in this country. There just aren’t enough staff (or enough money) to do all the things that have to be done. Making places pretty doesn’t directly bring in any money, so gets neglected. I too have seen several benches falling apart, blocked drains, rips in the sofa fabric in reception, rotting window frames etc. Numerous times I walked down from the car park to the castle in the dark, because the street lamps were not working.

I had to remove my high heels to avoid an accident!

Axiom142

[Axiom142]

As I mentioned before, the layout of St Hill is a bit of a mess, with various courserooms, auditing rooms and offices etc being spread out over multiple floors with access only provided by steps. This would make it very difficult for someone in a wheelchair to be able to move about the castle freely without having a couple of helpers available to carry them.

For example, the Qual area, including the library and the Internship courseroom are located under the main reception area and can only be reached by two sets of steps, thus making it almost impossible to be accessed if you were in a wheelchair. In addition, many of the auditing rooms are rather small and combined with the inward-opening doors, means that they could not be used by a wheelchair-user.

Also, there are no toilets in the castle that have been equipped for disabled users, thus making it very difficult for disabled people to even visit St Hill, let alone be regular ‘customers’ or even staff.

Therefore, the Church of Scientology at St Hill is in breach of the Disability Discrimination Act 2005, details of which can be found here: http://direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeop...ess/DG_4018353

Extract:

“The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) gives disabled people important rights of access to everyday services.

Everyday services include services provided by local councils, doctors' surgeries, shops, hotels, banks, pubs, post offices, theatres, hairdressers, places of worship, courts and voluntary groups such as play groups.”

Unfortunately, the Government have seen fit to leave it up to individuals to enforce this law. But, if you are covered under the terms of this act and would like to force the CoS to improve its access to its facilities, you could take action as shown in the link, or contact The Equality and Human Rights Commission, website here: http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/e...s/default.aspx

I suppose that even if you are not disabled, you could still write to the CoS and tell them that they are in breach of this law and that they should take steps to meet the requirements of this law.

The address is:

Office of Special Affairs
St Hill Manor
Saint Hill Road
East Grinstead
West Sussex
RH19 4JY
United Kingdom

At the very least, it would give OSA the chance to count some stats, e.g. ‘Legal Threats Identified and Handling Begun’ etc.

Axiom142

[Amadeus Einstein]

As I mentioned before, the layout of St Hill is a bit of a mess, with various courserooms, auditing rooms and offices etc being spread out over multiple floors with access only provided by steps. This would make it very difficult for someone in a wheelchair to be able to move about the castle freely without having a couple of helpers available to carry them.

For example, the Qual area, including the library and the Internship courseroom are located under the main reception area and can only be reached by two sets of steps, thus making it almost impossible to be accessed if you were in a wheelchair. In addition, many of the auditing rooms are rather small and combined with the inward-opening doors, means that they could not be used by a wheelchair-user.

Also, there are no toilets in the castle that have been equipped for disabled users, thus making it very difficult for disabled people to even visit St Hill, let alone be regular ‘customers’ or even staff.

Therefore, the Church of Scientology at St Hill is in breach of the Disability Discrimination Act 2005, details of which can be found here: http://direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeop...ess/DG_4018353

Extract:

“The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) gives disabled people important rights of access to everyday services.

Everyday services include services provided by local councils, doctors' surgeries, shops, hotels, banks, pubs, post offices, theatres, hairdressers, places of worship, courts and voluntary groups such as play groups.”

Unfortunately, the Government have seen fit to leave it up to individuals to enforce this law. But, if you are covered under the terms of this act and would like to force the CoS to improve its access to its facilities, you could take action as shown in the link, or contact The Equality and Human Rights Commission, website here: http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/e...s/default.aspx

I suppose that even if you are not disabled, you could still write to the CoS and tell them that they are in breach of this law and that they should take steps to meet the requirements of this law.

The address is:

Office of Special Affairs
St Hill Manor
Saint Hill Road
East Grinstead
West Sussex
RH19 4JY
United Kingdom

At the very least, it would give OSA the chance to count some stats, e.g. ‘Legal Threats Identified and Handling Begun’ etc.

Axiom142

The Church doesn't want wheelchair-users, or customers with any other form of disability. They're "downstat", remember?

[Dulloldfart]

Left-to-right:

Mick Parkee; Chris Burton; #1? ; #2? ; #3? ; Isla Pryde ; Doug Acheson ; #4? ; Linda Jones ; Ros DeLacy ; Peter Thompson

Peter Thompson wasn't in the AO but was so big-headed he wanted to be in every shot even though he had a whole photo to himself in the brochure. Since Linda Jones is in both pix too, I think she was (is?) the Qual Sec.

Paul

[Dulloldfart]

Left-to-right:

#5? ; Naomi ? (Whittaker around 1980) ; #6? ; #7? ; #8? ; #9? ; #10? ; #11? ; Liz Cotton (married now?) ; Ingo Metzner ; Rebecca Dodd ; Linda Jones ; John Taylor ; #12? ; John Harding (I think) ; #13? ; Peter Thompson

Paul

[Free to shine]

Left-to-right:

Mick Parkee; Chris Burton; #1? ; #2? ; #3? ; Isla Pryde ; Doug Acheson ; #4? ; Linda Jones ; Ros DeLacy ; Peter Thompson

Peter Thompson wasn't in the AO but was so big-headed he wanted to be in every shot even though he had a whole photo to himself in the brochure. Since Linda Jones is in both pix too, I think she was (is?) the Qual Sec.

Paul

Oh wow - a few familiar faces for me in this one!
Is that a 'uniform' they are wearing?

[Dulloldfart]

Oh wow - a few familiar faces for me in this one!
Is that a 'uniform' they are wearing?

Yes, but the stripes are an artifact and not part of it. Note the grass is striped too.

Paul