Whilst I’ve seen many articles reporting on the happiness of ex pupils and residents looking back on their time here, the schools later years did not end well, after being plagued by allegations of physical abuse. I wish I could say this was a rare thing in the late 20th century, but given that it’s been a fairly common finding in many of the places I’ve documented over the years, it was clearly rife before people started to actually take notice. Durham police and social services launched a major child protection investigation by the title ‘operation eden’ in order to get to the bottom of the goings on here.