Mansfield General Hospital April '12

mookster · Apr 7, 2012

This has been a long time coming.....#1 on my 'to do list' for the best part of a year and a half.

So it was on a dull and drab morning me and Flubs rocked up into Mansfield having hit the road at some ungodly time in the morning. Spotting the way into the site we realised just how close everything was to the houses that overlook it...and how unsubtle we were!

We were inside for less than 30 minutes until we heard the gate jangling...running upstairs in the older part of the building we then saw two policemen and the security guard enter the site. We watched them wander around the grounds for a bit from the top floor and then they entered one of the buildings! We could see them wandering around in the upper floors of the buildings opposite us, but by the grace of something they lost interest before they got to the older frontal part we were hiding in....so half an hour later and with the fuzz gone, we continued the explore and had an awesome day. This place easily ranks among my top explores ever, I love the level of decay and the feel of the place. Definitely going back at some point as there are various bits we missed out on even though we tried to be as thorough as possible.

If you've been living under a rock for the last few years here is some history...

Construction of this building started in 1889 and was officially opened on the 27th October 1890. The initial build cost £2000 and provided a total of 5 beds.

In 1897 an extension was added to provide a further 10 beds, this wing was named the Newstead Ward. By 1928 the number of beds available had grown to 108. In 1950 another extension was built to help deal with demand, this increased the bed number by a further 60.

Over a number of years Kings Mill took over the majority of the services and eventually in 1992 the hospital closed.

In recent years it has been claimed by the owners that the site would become luxury apartments, but nothing has come of this. Due to the site being in disrepair they are have been warned of legal action by the local council.

I took 136 photos overall, somehow I've had to wittle this down to a report-worthy selection....